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RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 


Religion  and  Medicine 

THE   MORAL   CONTROL   OF 
NERVOUS    DISORDERS 


BY 

ELWOOD  WORCESTER,  D.D.,'  PH.D. 
SAMUEL  McCOMB,  M.A.,  D.D. 

Emmanuel  Church,  Boston 

ISADOR  H.  CORIAT,  M.D. 


NEW  YORK 

MOFFAT,  YARD   fcf    COMPANY 
1908 


Copyright  1908,  by 

MOFFAT,  YARD  &    COMPANY 
NEW  YORK 


All  rights  reserved  including  translation  and  reproduction 
Published,  May,  1908 

Second  printing,  May,  1908 
Third  printing,  June,  1908 
Fourth  printing,  June,  1908 
Fifth  printing,  August,  1908 
Sixth  printing,  August,  1908 
Seventh  printing,  October,  1908 
Eighth  printing,  November,  1908 
Ninth  printing,  December,  1908 


The  Plimpton  Press  Norwood  Mass.  VS. A. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

FOREWORD vii 

I.    INTRODUCTION i 

II.    THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND 14 

III.  SUGGESTION 43 

IV.  AUTO-SUGGESTION 93 

V.    THE  FUNCTIONAL  NEUROSES 108 

VI.    THE  CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (Heredity)         .     .     .  125 

VII.    THE  CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (Environment)       .     .  133 

VIII.    THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM  IN  HEALTH  AND  DISEASE       .  179 

IX.    THE  DISEASES  OF  THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 199 

X.    THE  NATURE  OF  HYPNOTISM 218 

XI.    THE  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE  OF  HYPNOTISM        .     .     .  234 

XII.    PSYCHIC  AND  MOTOR  RE-EDUCATION 247 

XIII.  THE  GENERAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  PSYCHOTHERAPY       .  260 

XIV.  FEAR  AND  WORRY 266 

XV.    ABNORMAL  FEARS 281 

XVI.    FAITH  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  POWER 289 

XVII.    PRAYER  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE       ....  302 

XVIII.    SUICIDE  AND  ITS  PREVENTION 320 

XIX.    THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF  CHRIST 338 

XX.    THE  OUTLOOK  OF  THE  CHURCH 369 

APPENDIX     I.    SOME  PHYSICAL  DISORDERS  HAVING  MENTAL 

ORIGIN.      By  J.  Warren  Achom,  M.D.       .  389 
APPENDIX  II.    EXPERIMENTS  IN  AUTO-SUGGESTION     .     .     .412 

INDEX ,  .     .  417 


FOREWORD 

THIS  book  is  the  joint  work  of  three  friends,  each  of 
whom  is  responsible  for  his  own  contribution. 

Introduction  and  Chapters  II,  III,  V,  VI,  VII,  XX, 
are  written  by  Dr.  Worcester. 

Chapters  IV,  XIV,  XV,  XVI,  XVIII,  are  written  by 
Dr.  McComb. 

Chapters  VIII,  IX,  X,  XI,  XII,  XIII,  are  written  by 
Dr.  Coriat. 

Chapters  XVII  and  XIX  are  written  jointly  by  Dr. 
Worcester  and  Dr.  McComb. 


vii 


RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 


RELIGION   AND   MEDICINE 

CHAPTER    I 

INTRODUCTION 

THE  object  of  this  book  is  to  describe  in  plain  terms 
the  work  in  behalf  of  nervous  sufferers  which  has  been 
undertaken  in  Emmanuel  Church,  Boston.  So  much 
has  been  written  on  the  subject  of  our  movement,  in  many 
instances  by  persons  slightly  acquainted  with  it,  that  we 
feel  it  due  to  the  public  and  to  ourselves  to  state  what  we 
are  doing  and  to  discuss  the  religious  and  scientific  prin- 
ciples on  which  we  are  building.  If  a  temporary  digres- 
sion may  be  pardoned,  our  Class  for  the  Treatment  of 
Nervous  Disorders  is  not  the  first  effort  we  have  made 
for  the  relief  of  the  sick.  Nearly  three  years  ago  the  Em- 
manuel Church  Tuberculosis  Class  began  its  beneficent 
mission  under  the  medical  direction  of  Dr.  Joseph  H. 
Pratt.  The  question  we  attempted  to  answer  in  founding 
this  class  was,  can  the  poorest  consumptives  be  cured  in 
the  slums  of  a  great  city  without  removing  them  from 
their  homes?  The  treatment  consisted  of  the  approved 
modern  method  of  combating  consumption,  plus  discip- 
line, friendship,  encouragement,  and  hope,  in  short,  a 
combination  of  physical  and  moral  elements,  and  we  are 
satisfied  that  the  personality  of  Dr.  Pratt  is  largely  respon- 
sible for  the  fact  that  while  our  work  has  been  carried  on 
under  the  most  unfavorable  environment,  our  records 
will  bear  comparison  with  those  of  the  best  sanatoria. 


2  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

The  success  of  our  Tuberculosis  Class,  which  is  now  gen- 
erally recognized  and  which  has  led  to  the  formation  of 
many  similar  classes,  convinced  us  that  the  Church  has 
an  important  mission  to  discharge  to  the  sick,  and  that 
the  physician  and  the  clergyman  can  work  together  to 
the  benefit  of  the  community.  Accordingly,  in  the  autumn 
of  1906  we  determined  to  begin  a  similar  work  among 
the  nervously  and  morally  diseased.  As  a  preliminary 
step  we  consulted  several  of  the  leading  neurologists  of 
New  England  to  ascertain,  first,  whether  such  a  project, 
undertaken  with  proper  safeguards,  would  meet  with 
their  approval,  and  secondly,  whether  they  would  be  will- 
ing to  co-operate  with  us  in  it.  A  favorable  response 
being  given  to  these  questions,  our  work  began  on  a  very 
stormy  evening  in  November,  when  Dr.  James  J.  Putnam 
presided  at  the  preliminary  meeting  and  gave  the  first 
address.  Thus  from  the  beginning  our  work  has  been 
closely  associated  with  very  able  physicians  and  we  have 
done  nothing  without  their  co-operation  and  advice.  Had 
this  assistance  been  withheld,  we  should  not  have  pro- 
ceeded further. 

As  we  are  attempting  to  establish  no  new  dogma,  and 
as  our  motives  are  entirely  disinterested,  our  single  desire 
is  to  give  each  patient  the  best  opportunity  of  life  and 
health  which  our  means  allow.  We  believe  in  the  power 
of  the  mind  over  the  body,  and  we  believe  also  in  medi- 
cine, in  good  habits,  and  in  a  wholesome,  well-regulated 
life.  In  the  treatment  of  functional  nervous  disorders 
we  make  free  use  of  moral  and  psychical  agencies,  but  we 
do  not  believe  in  overtaxing  these  valuable  aids  by  expect- 
ing the  mind  to  attain  results  which  can  be  effected  more 


INTRODUCTION  3 

easily  through  physical  instrumentalities.  Accordingly 
we  have  gladly  availed  ourselves  of  the  services  of  the 
skilled  medical  and  surgical  specialists  who  have  offered 
to  co-operate  with  us,  and  we  believe  that  our  freedom  hi 
this  respect  and  the  combination  of  good  psychical  and 
physical  methods  have  had  much  to  do  with  our  success. 
If  a  bad  headache  is  caused  by  eye-strain,  or  a  generally 
enfeebled  condition  is  obviously  the  result  of  a  digestive 
disturbance,  a  pair  of  glasses  or  a  belt  is  frequently  far 
more  effective  than  suggestion.  Most  religious  workers 
hi  this  field  have  made  the  mistake  of  supposing  that  God 
can  cure  in  only  one  way  and  that  the  employment  of 
physical  means  indicates  a  lack  of  faith.  This  is  absurd. 
God  cures  by  many  means.  He  uses  the  sunlight,  heal- 
ing and  nourishing  substances,  water  and  air.  The  knit- 
ting of  a  broken  bone,  or  the  furrowing  out  of  new  blood 
courses  in  a  diseased  limb,  is  just  as  truly  His  work  as 
the  restoration  of  a  wounded  spirit.  There  is  no  peculiar 
piety  involved  in  the  use  of  suggestion.  We  have  seen  the 
consumptive  nursed  back  to  life,  by  rest,  fresh  air,  abun- 
dant food  and  kindness,  and  we  have  seen  more  spectacular 
recovery  from  other  diseases  through  confident  expecta- 
tion and  the  spoken  word,  but  we  have  never  felt  that  the 
one  was  necessarily  more  the  act  of  God  than  the  other. 
The  fact  remains  that  consumption  can  be  cured  in  no 
other  way,  and  that  those  who  take  a  different  view  of 
the  subject  do  not  cure  consumptives;  they  kill  them  by 
robbing  them  of  their  last  chance  of  life;  the  same  is  true 
of  other  diseases. 

For  this  reason  we  have  confined  our  practice  to  that 
large  group  of  maladies  which  are  known  to-day  as  func- 


4  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

tional  nervous  disorders.  Although  a  sound  psychical 
and  moral  method  is  a  valuable  adjunct  in  every  branch 
of  medicine,  yet  viewed  as  an  independent  remedial  agent 
the  legitimate  sphere  of  psychotherapy  is  strictly  limited. 
It  is  in  the  field  of  the  functional  neuroses  that  all  its  real 
victories  have  been  won.  Here  again  our  conception  of 
our  mission  differs  decidedly  from  that  of  our  predeces- 
sors. In  answer  to  their  taunt:  "If  you  believe  in  God's 
power  to  cure  disease,  how  dare  you  place  any  limit  to 
that  power?"  we  are  content  to  reply:  "We  believe  God 
has  power  to  cure  all  disease,  but  we  do  not  believe  God 
cures  all  disease  by  the  same  means.  At  all  events  an 
authentic  instance  of  recovery  from  organic  disease 
through  psychical  means  is  what  we  are  waiting  for.  While 
we  do  not  believe  that  any  man  knows  all  that  is  to  be 
known  on  this  subject,  or  that  we  are  in  a  position  to 
affirm  dogmatically  what  the  mind  can  or  cannot  accom- 
plish, yet  we  are  surely  safe  in  accepting  as  to  this  the 
overwhelming  weight  of  scientific  opinion,  and  in  confin- 
ing our  practice  to  a  field  in  which  it  is  known  to  be  effi- 
cacious. By  so  doing  we  avoid  the  one  valid  objection 
which  has  ever  been  urged  against  psychotherapeutics, 
namely,  its  employment  in  diseases  which  obviously 
require  physical  interference,  with  the  result  that  many 
patients  have  died  through  sheer  neglect. 

Apart  from  this,  it  is  in  the  domain  of  functional  ner- 
vous disorders  that  such  service  as  we  are  able  to  render 
is  most  needed,  not  merely  because  this  branch  of  med- 
icine is  least  developed  in  America  and  adequate  treat- 
ment is  difficult  to  obtain,  especially  by  the  poor,  but 
because  disorders  of  this  nature  are  peculiarly  associ- 


INTRODUCTION  5 

ated  with  the  moral  life.  An  attack  of  typhoid  fever 
may  spring  from  no  moral  cause  and  it  may  have  no 
perceptible  influence  upon  character,  but  neurasthenia, 
hysteria,  psychasthenia,  hypochondria,  alcoholism,  etc., 
are  affections  of  the  personality.  They  spring  from 
moral  causes  and  they  produce  moral  effects.  In  this 
domain  the  beneficent  action  of  drugs  and  medicines  is 
extremely  limited,  and  the  personality  of  the  physician  is 
everything.  Other  agencies  such  as  electricity,  baths, 
etc.,  probably  owe  much  of  their  value  to  their  sugges- 
tional  effect,  and  so  long  as  the  training  of  our  physi- 
cians is  strictly  material,  such  patients  will  continue 
to  be  their  despair,  for  the  reason  that  moral  maladies 
require  moral  treatment. 

Another  important  characteristic  of  our  work  is  the 
pains  taken  in  the  diagnosis  of  disease  and  hi  the  preser- 
vation of  records,  without  which  no  treatment  can  be 
regarded  as  scientific  or  even  safe.  In  nervous  disorders 
this  is  the  more  necessary  because  so-called  nervous  affec- 
tions are  not  infrequently  indications  or  precursors  of 
serious  organic  disease,  failure  to  discover  which  is  not 
merely  loss  of  time  and  effort,  it  is  frequently  a  gross 
wrong  to  the  patient,  and  the  exposure  of  oneself  to  mer- 
ited criticism  and  contempt.  We  believe  with  Dr.  Barker 
that  the  modern  refinements  of  diagnosis  should  be  ex- 
hausted in  the  study  of  all  doubtful  cases  before  the  treat- 
ment is  begun,  and  thanks  to  our  facility  of  consultation 
we  leave  no  stone  unturned  in  this  respect,  and  we  admit 
no  patient  to  the  class  until  we  are  assured  on  good  med- 
ical authority  that  he  or  she  is  likely  to  be  benefited 
by  the  treatment.  Our  system  of  record  is  that  of  the 


6  RELIGION  AND   MEDICINE 

Massachusetts  General  Hospital  supplemented  by  notes 
on  the  moral  and  spiritual  advice  given  and  on  the  effect  of 
this  advice.  In  this  way  we  are  collecting  a  mass  of  val- 
uable material  which  will  be  used  in  a  subsequent  work. 

We  have  dwelt  on  the  scientific  side  of  our  work  partly 
with  the  purpose  of  recommending  it  to  honorable  physi- 
cians, with  whom  we  are  always  ready  to  co-operate,  and 
partly  to  differentiate  it  as  sharply  as  possible  from  cults 
and  methods  which  we  regard  as  unsound  and  irrational. 
The  Christian  character  of  our  undertaking  is  to  our  mind 
guaranteed  chiefly  by  the  fact  that  it  is  absolutely  disin- 
terested. Our  single  desire  is  to  help  those  it  is  given  us 
to  help.  Our  class  is  supported  by  the  voluntary  offer- 
ings received  at  its  meetings,  but  that  is  all.  We  neither 
ask  nor  accept  any  reward  for  our  services.  As  to  the 
propriety  of  the  Church  engaging  in  such  work,  we  venture 
to  say  that  the  time  is  come  when  the  Church  must  enter 
more  deeply  into  the  personal  lives  of  the  people  and  make 
a  freer  use  of  the  means  modern  science  and  the  Gospel 
of  Christ  place  at  her  disposal  if  she  is  to  continue  even 
to  hold  her  own.  It  is  evident  that  people  to-day  desire 
spiritual  help  and  sustenance  which  they  are  not  receiving, 
but  which  the  Church  as  the  representative  of  Christ  is 
able  to  give  them.  If  the  Church,  closing  her  eyes  to  the 
example  of  her  Lord  and  deaf  to  His  commands,  with- 
holds from  the  people  the  gifts  committed  to  her  by  Jesus, 
she  must  expect  to  find  herself  forsaken  for  strange  cults 
which  with  all  their  absurdities  aim  at  supplying  present 
strength  for  present  needs.  The  teachings  of  modern 
psychology  and  physiology  as  to  the  essential  unity  of 
human  nature  and  the  mutual  relations  of  mind  and  body 


INTRODUCTION  7 

have  sunk  so  deep  into  the  popular  conscience  that  the 
Church  can  no  longer  address  men  as  disembodied  spirits, 
and  no  scheme  of  salvation  causes  the  heart  to  beat  with 
hope  which  does  not  include  the  whole  man  and  which 
does  not  begin  now.  What  will  be  the  outcome  of  this 
movement  no  man  can  say.  We  feel  that  we  have  done 
something  in  attempting  to  separate  truth  from  error  and 
in  applying  that  truth  with  good  result  to  the  lives  of  sev- 
eral thousand  persons.  What  we  have  done,  other  men 
and  other  churches  can  do  as  well  or  better,  and  it  is  with 
the  earnest  hope  that  other  qualified  persons  may  be 
induced  to  help  us  and  to  relieve  us  of  the  pressure  of 
patients  from  distant  cities  that  we  issue  this  tentative 
and  imperfect  statement. 

We  are  living  to-day  in  the  midst  of  a  great  religious 
movement,  which  is  the  more  interesting  because  it  is 
spontaneous.  Here  and  there  one  catches  echoes  of  it 
from  the  pulpits  of  orthodox  churches,  but  for  the  most 
part  it  has  arisen  outside  the  churches.  Wherever  one 
goes  one  finds  certain  groups  of  persons  talking,  reading, 
thinking  of  the  spiritual  life.  Much  of  this  talk  and  of 
this  literature  may  strike  the  intelligent  critic  as  bizarre 
and  fantastic,  but  at  all  events  it  is  idealistic  and  optimis- 
tic. Thousands  of  men  and  women  to-day  are  seriously 
seeking  for  a  better  life,  and  many  believe  that  they  have 
found  it.  They  have  a  feeling  that  there  is  more  in  re- 
ligion than  they  have  recognized  or  received  in  the  past. 
There  is  a  marked  tendency  to  dispense  with  the  tedious 
processes  of  criticism  and  dogma  and  to  return  to  the 
Christ  of  the  Gospels  and  to  accept  His  words  in  a  more 
literal  sense.  One  marked  characteristic  of  this  move- 


8  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

ment  is  a  renewed  belief  in  prayer;  another  most  curious 
aspect  of  it  is  the  confident  expectation  that  religious  and 
spiritual  states  can  affect  health  and  that  physical  bless- 
ings will  follow  spiritual  exercises.  In  short  we  see  a 
decided  reaction  from  the  scientific  materialism  and  the 
rational  criticism  in  which  we  have  grown  up.  If  the  nine- 
teenth century  was  materialistic  and  critical,  the  first  half 
of  the  twentieth  century  promises  to  be  mystical  and 
spiritual.  Already  we  are  conscious  of  a  general  revolt  in 
the  name  of  the  soul.  We  feel  the  stirrings  of  a  cold 
morning  breeze,  harbinger  of  a  new  day.  Far-sighted 
writers  like  Renan  and  Paulsen  anticipated  this  change. 
They  realized  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  mere  explora- 
tion of  Nature  in  which  the  human  spirit  can  find  its 
permanent  rest.  They  knew  too  well  the  ever- refining  pro- 
cesses of  criticism  to  believe  that  in  themselves  they  can 
afford  the  materials  for  a  popular  religion.  Accordingly 
they  spoke  often  of  "  the  religion  of  the  future,"  and  Renan 
with  his  usual  intuition  declared  that  if  it  were  already  in 
our  midst  few  of  us  would  know  it. 

This  prediction  has  proved  true.  The  new  religious 
movement  has  spoken  a  language  so  foreign  to  cultivated 
ears,  its  interpretation  of  the  Bible  is  so  false,  it  is  so  obvi- 
ously committed  to  errors,  illusions,  and  aberrations  of 
every  sort,  that  the  intelligent  have  been  disposed  to  shrug 
their  shoulders  in  contempt  and  to  ignore  it.  And  yet 
they  have  not  been  able  to  ignore  it  altogether.  Every 
once  in  awhile  this  curious  superstition  proves  its  exist- 
ence with  unexpected  power.  We  see  a  hard-headed 
business  man  totally  devoid  of  religious  sentiment  undergo 
a  new  kind  of  conversion  which  leaves  him  as  devout  and 


INTRODUCTION  9 

ardent  as  a  Christian  of  the  first  century.  An  ailing  wife 
or  daughter  whom  no  physician  has  been  able  to  help, 
through  some  mysterious  means  is  restored  to  health 
and  happiness.  The  victim  of  an  enslaving  habit, 
apparently  with  very  little  effort,  and  without  physical 
means,  sufferings,  or  relapse,  finds  himself  free.  We  enter 
a  home  where  the  new  belief  reigns  and  we  find  there  a 
peace  to  which  we  are  strangers. 

Let  us  then  remember  Darwin's  advice  and  distinguish 
sharply  between  facts  and  the  hypotheses  which  are  put 
forward  to  account  for  facts.  The  humblest  attested 
fact  remains,  and  may  cause  us  to  reconstruct  our  views 
of  the  universe,  while  it  is  the  fate  of  all  dogmas  to  fail 
and  to  be  rejected  one  after  another.  What  if  the  pres- 
ent movement  makes  its  appearance  largely  under  the 
form  of  error  and  illusion?  It  is  in  this  form  that  most 
new  thoughts  and  all  our  older  sciences  have  presented 
themselves  in  this  world.  The  important  thing  is  that 
there  is  life  in  this  thought,  it  is  able  to  create  faith.  It 
is  pressing  onward  by  its  own  power.  It  is  not  a  doctrine 
of  the  schools,  it  is  one  of  those  obscure  movements  of 
the  human  spirit  which  fashion  their  own  message  and 
means  of  communication  and  which  grow  by  their  own 
vitality.  And  yet  sometimes  when  a  seething  chemical 
compound  is  over  the  fire  the  infusion  of  a  few  drops  of 
the  right  fluid  at  the  right  time  will  cause  a  precipitation, 
and  will  clarify  the  whole  mass.  It  is  thus  we  venture  to 
regard  the  position  we  have  taken  at  Emmanuel  Church. 
We  have  approached  this  subject  with  earnest  faith,  but 
with  faith  tempered  by  sobriety  of  thought  and  by  respect 
for  science  truly  so  called.  Religious  movements  can  be 


10  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

guided  only  by  believers.  As  Renan  says  rather  too  flip- 
pantly, they  are  like  women  who  can  be  induced  to  do 
anything  if  one  takes  them  the  right  way,  but  they  yield 
nothing  to  force. 

The  doctrines  of  Christian  Science,  for  example,  have 
been  denounced,  ridiculed,  exploited  times  without  num- 
ber, apparently  with  as  much  effect  as  throwing  pebbles 
at  the  sea  checks  the  rising  of  the  tide.  Preachers,  physi- 
cians, editors  of  powerful  journals,  philosophers,  humorists, 
unite  in  pouring  contempt  upon  this  despicable  supersti- 
tion, very  much  as  Juvenal,  Tacitus,  and  Celsus  mocked 
at  nascent  Christianity,  but  in  spite  of  them  it  lives.  While 
most  other  religious  bodies  are  declining  or  barely  holding 
their  own,  it  grows  by  leaps  and  bounds.  All  over  this 
country  solid  and  enduring  temples  are  reared  by  grateful 
hands  and  consecrated  to  the  ideal  and  name  of  Mrs. 
Eddy.  And  this  strange  phenomenon  has  occurred  in 
the  full  light  of  day,  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  and  at 
the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century,  and  these  ex- 
traordinary doctrines  have  propagated  themselves  not  in 
obscure  corners  of  the  earth,  among  an  illiterate  and 
a  fanatical  populace,  but  in  the  chief  centers  of  American 
civilization.  Such  facts  may  well  cause  the  philosophical 
student  of  religion  to  reflect.  The  more  absurd  the  Chris- 
tian Science  dogma  is  made  to  appear,  the  more  difficult 
it  becomes  to  account  for  men's  faith  in  it.  Unless  we 
are  prepared  to  confess  ourselves  utterly  at  a  loss  to  explain 
this  infatuation,  we  must  be  able  to  pass  beneath  the 
vulgar  and  repulsive  exterior  of  Christian  Science  and  to 
find  a  truth  in  it,  a  gift  for  men,  a  spiritual  power  answer- 
ing to  men's  needs  which  the  churches  at  present  do  not 


INTRODUCTION  II 

possess.  Nor  is  this  difficult  to  those  who  know  that  the 
metaphysical  basis  of  a  religion  expressed  by  its  dogmas 
is  the  last  part  to  be  accepted  and  embraced  by  its  people. 
The  metaphysical  basis  of  Buddhism  is  complete  negation, 
a  denial  of  God,  of  prayer,  of  the  soul,  of  immortality, 
in  short,  of  all  the  elements  which  elsewhere  constitute 
religion.  That  did  not  stand  in  the  way  of  the  adoring 
multitudes  who  found  new  life  in  the  seductive  sweetness 
of  Sakyamuni's  personality.  The  metaphysical  basis 
of  Christian  Science  is  too  crude,  too  contradictory  to  be 
accepted  by  the  normal  reason.  What  of  that?  It  is 
not  by  metaphysical  consistency  that  men  live.  With  all 
its  obscurity  we  find  in  the  Sacred  Book  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence great  truths  —  freedom  from  the  fetters  of  sense  and 
passion,  the  power  of  the  soul  over  the  body,  victory  of 
the  mind  over  its  tyrants  fear  and  anger,  the  presence  of 
God  manifested  with  power;  above  all,  the  promise  of  an 
immense  immediate  good  as  the  result  of  faith.  These 
are  the  magnets  to  which  the  souls  of  men  have  sprung 
as  waiting  particles  of  steel.  In  spite  of  John  Stuart  Mill, 
the  most  powerful  motive  of  religion  will  ever  be  the  Prac- 
tical Motive,  and  by  the  Practical  Motive  we  mean  be- 
lieving because  it  is  good  and  useful  to  believe,  believing 
what  is  good  and  useful  to  believe.1  We  are  never  at  a 
loss  to  find  reasons  for  what  we  wish  to  believe.  No  one 
ever  yet  accepted  a  form  of  religious  faith  which  prom- 
ised to  do  him  nothing  but  harm.  The  more  good  any 
particular  form  of  religion  accomplishes,  the  more  men 
will  believe  in  it,  and  the  less  good  any  particular  church 

1  See  Theodor  Fechner's  Drei  Motive  und  Griinde  des  Glaubens, 
Leipzig,  1863. 


12  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

or  religious  institution  does,  the  less  the  faith  it  is  able  to 
inspire.  Here  lies  the  source  of  the  power  of  Christian 
Science.  It  does  unquestionably  bestow  certain  great 
benefits  on  believers:  it  makes  men  happy,  it  improves 
tempers,  it  frequently  weans  men  from  evil  habits,  it  can 
reduce  or  remove  pain,  it  cures  certain  types  of  disease 
and  it  gives  courage  to  endure  these  which  it  cannot  heal. 
It  concerns  itself  with  the  present  and  its  effects  are 
direct,  practical,  immediate.  Therein  lies  its  great  superi- 
ority to  preaching  that  is  vague  and  impractical  and  which 
deals  largely  with  a  distant  future.  If  we  should  prom- 
ise every  worshiper  in  Emmanuel  Church  next  Sunday 
the  gift  of  a  ten-dollar  gold  piece,  no  matter  what  the 
character  of  the  preaching  there  would  be  no  vacant  pews. 
Why?  Because  the  congregation  would  be  sure  of  ob- 
taining a  coin  which  passes  current  here  and  now  —  some- 
thing which  represents  to  them  an  immediate  personal 
good.  In  precisely  the  same  way,  were  we  to  say  to  cer- 
tain persons,  if  you  will  believe  and  do  thus  and  so  you 
will  receive  a  marked  benefit  in  five  days  or  five  weeks,  you 
will  sleep  well,  you  will  be  free  from  pain,  you  will  escape 
from  your  vices,  you  will  possess  a  peace  which  the  world 
cannot  take  from  you,  and  our  prediction  in  every  instance 
proved  true,  those  persons  would  have  a  personal  faith  in 
us  and  in  our  ministry  which  were  not  easily  shaken.  We 
have  heard  many  cultivated  and  intelligent  persons  dis- 
cuss Christian  Science.  They  begin  by  abusing  it,  but 
they  end  by  admitting  there  is  something  in  it,  something 
it  is  evident  which  they  do  not  understand. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  we  have  approached  this  subject 
from  a  totally  different  point  of  view.     Our  movement 


INTRODUCTION  13 

bears  no  relation  to  Christian  Science,  either  by  way  of 
protest  or  of  imitation,  but  it  would  be  what  it  is  had 
the  latter  never  existed.  We  have  taken  our  stand  fairly 
and  squarely  on  the  religion  of  Christ  as  that  religion  is 
revealed  in  the  New  Testament  and  as  it  is  interpreted 
by  modern  scholarship,  and  we  have  combined  with  this 
the  power  of  genuine  science.  This  we  consider  a  good 
foundation  —  the  best  of  all  foundations. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND 

ALONGSIDE  of  the  religious  movement  we  have  alluded 
to,  and  no  doubt  profoundly  influencing  it,  there  has 
occurred  one  of  the  most  interesting  developments  of 
psychology  which  have  taken  place  in  the  history  of  that 
ancient  science.  This  has  consisted  in  the  recognition 
of  powers  in  man  beyond  those  usually  employed  in  his 
normal  consciousness.  To  this  obscure  domain  of  the 
soul  a  great  variety  of  names  unfortunately  has  been  given 
—  the  unconscious  mind,  the  subconscious,  the  subliminal, 
the  subjective,  etc.  While  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  affirm 
that  the  existence  of  powers  so  designated  is  universally 
admitted  by  psychologists,  yet  it  is  certain  that  there  is  a 
growing  disposition  in  this  direction.  Even  those  writers 
who  formally  deny  the  principle  are  not  able  to  dispense 
with  it  in  their  explanation  of  what  goes  on  in  the  human 
mind.  We  believe  with  Professor  James  that  the  subcon- 
scious powers  of  the  mind  really  exist  and  that  the  recog- 
nition of  them  forms  the  most  important  advance  which 
psychology  has  made  since  the  days  of  Fechner  and 
Weber.1  For  this  discovery  suddenly  transformed  psy- 

1  While  accepting  the  conception  of  subconscious  elements  in  mind  we 
fully  recognize  the  fact  that  the  existence  of  such  powers  is  not  directly 
demonstrable.  In  the  following  chapters  this  view  is  developed  merely 
as  a  working  hypothesis  for  which  evidence  is  offered,  but  it  has  no  direct 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND  *$ 

chology  from  a  purely  theoretical  science,  a  preoccupation 
of  the  learned,  into  a  powerful  instrument  for  the  improve- 
ment of  human  life.  Henceforth  this  particular  child  of 
philosophy  can  no  longer  be  termed  a  sterile  virgin.  I 
remember  a  lecture  on  psychology  delivered  by  Professor 
James  a  good  many  years  ago  which  Dr.  James  began 
with  some  such  words  as  these :  "  Perhaps  you  will  ask  me 
what  are  the  practical  benefits  conferred  on  the  world  by 
this  interesting  science.  So  far  as  I  am  able  to  discern, 
absolutely  none."  To-day,  if  he  so  willed,  Professor 
James  might  easily  rank  with  the  greatest  neurologists 
in  the  treatment  of  a  large  group  of  diseases,  and  this 
solely  by  virtue  of  his  consummate  ability  as  a  physiologi- 
cal psychologist.  Spinoza  says  that  every  advance  toward 
perfection  gives  us  happiness,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
the  buoyancy  which  characterizes  contemporary  thought, 
the  hopeful  outlook  amid  all  dangers  that  threaten  us,  the 
sense  of  the  added  cubit  to  man's  stature,  are  due  largely 
to  the  recognition  of  powers  for  good  within  his  soul  of 
which  he  was  not  formerly  aware. 

i.  As  to  the  nature  of  these  powers,  opinion  ranges 
from  Janet  who,  true  to  the  traditions  of  his  school,  sees 
in  subconscious  activity  only  a  pathological  phenomenon, 
the  concomitant  of  hysteria,  to  those  who  discern  in  it  the 
proof  of  a  higher  nature,  the  spiritual  man,  made  in  the 
image  of  God.  While  the  scope  of  this  work  precludes 
theoretical  discussion  of  the  subject,  we  will  here  enumerate 

bearing  upon  our  practice  and  it  is  accepted  only  in  the  modified  form  of 
"dissociation  of  consciousness"  by  Dr.  Coriat.  An  element  in  our  inner 
life  which  can  produce  mental  effects  without  consciousness  may  well 
be  named  subconscious  or  unconscious. 


16  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

some  of  the  evidences  of  unconscious  mental  action,  as  to 
which  most  unprejudiced  observers  agree.  In  animals 
and  insects  there  has  long  been  recognized  a  mind  unlike 
our  own  in  that  it  is  not  individual  nor  progressive,  but 
which  is  sufficient  for  the  purposes  of  their  wonderful 
lives.  In  spite  of  his  exaggeration  and  his  willingness  to 
accept  the  marvelous,  no  one  has  discussed  this  subject 
with  more  ability  than  Edouard  Von  Hartmann.1  Von 
Hartmann  defined  instinct  as  a  purposive  action  of  whose 
purpose  the  actor  is  unconscious.  A  trout  elects  to  lie 
in  a  dark,  shady  pool  and  he  quickly  takes  on  somber  hues 
in  harmony  with  his  environment.  He  passes  out  onto  the 
sunny  riffles  and  he  becomes  bright  again.  I  have  seen 
old  fishermen  who  could  tell  the  very  pools  and  rapids 
from  which  a  string  of  bass  had  been  taken  by  the  colors 
of  the  fish.  The  physiological  means  by  which  such 
changes  are  effected  pass  our  comprehension  and  the 
greatest  physiologist  can  give  no  account  of  them  except 
that  they  are  effected  through  the  eye,  as  blind  fishes  are 
incapable  of  such  transformations.  How  much  less  can 
the  fish  know  the  processes  by  which  such  pigments  are 
deposited  on  his  scales  as  will  render  him  least  visible  to 
his  enemies  or  his  prey,  or  the  necessity  of  his  so  painting 
himself.  So  in  man  a  thousand  purposive  activities  go 
on  as  to  which  we  are  in  total  ignorance,  and  to  bring 
these  within  the  sphere  of  our  consciousness  is  only  to 
derange  them.  The  very  regularity,  invariableness,  and 
certainty  of  these  processes  differentiate  them  sharply 
from  the  uncertain  and  intermittent  character  of  our  con- 
scious acts.  We  go  to  sleep  and  all  our  bodily  functions 

1  The  Philosophy  of  the  Unconscious. 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND  17 

go  on  as  usual.  Our  heart  continues  to  beat,  our  lungs 
are  rhythmically  expanded  and  contracted,  all  the  digest- 
ive processes  go  on.  Blood  is  supplied  to  every  part  of 
the  system  in  exact  proportion  to  each  part's  present  need. 
Even  in  the  deeper  narcotic  sleep  of  ether  there  is  no 
failure,  no  cessation  of  each  part  to  do  its  work.  Grant 
that  each  organ  mechanically  responds  to  its  stimulus,  what 
power  co-ordinates  and  controls  them  all  through  the  long 
rhythms  of  sleeping  and  waking,  and  from  the  tropics  to 
the  poles  maintains  our  inward  temperature  at  the  exact 
degree  necessary  to  our  health  ? 

I  desire  to  stretch  out  my  arm  and  I  have  no  difficulty 
in  doing  so.  But  do  I  know  the  complicated  mechanism 
of  nerves  and  muscles  and  tendons  and  bones  which  must 
be  set  in  motion  to  perform  this  act  ?  And  even  if  as  an 
anatomist  I  do  know  all  this,  have  I  any  knowledge  of 
where  the  lever  of  this  machine  lies  or  how  to  grasp  it, 
or  does  such  knowledge  make  my  acts  a  whit  better  than 
those  of  a  man  who  has  never  studied  anatomy?  On  the 
contrary,  is  it  not  true  that  our  more  refined  and  difficult 
acts,  such  as  balancing  oneself  on  a  bicycle,  playing  golf 
or  the  violin,  are  never  perfect  until  they  have  passed  the 
state  of  conscious  effort  and  have  become  as  we  say  auto- 
matic, i.e.,  under  the  control  of  the  subconscious  mind? 

2.  Again  let  us  consider  the  power  of  our  organism  to 
maintain  its  own  equilibrium,  and  to  recover  its  equi- 
librium when  attacked  by  disease  or  injury.  The  animal 
organism  may  be  called  a  machine,  but  a  machine  which 
can  regulate  its  own  action,  can  repair  its  own  waste  and 
injuries,  and  substitute  one  part  for  another  which  has 
become  defective,  is  controlled  by  a  different  principle 


i8  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

from  that  which  regulates  the  machines  made  by  men's 
hands.  However  physiologists  may  ridicule  the  old  so- 
called  Vis  medicatrix  naturae,  and  to-day  one  hears  this 
spoken  of  with  respect,  it  will  ever  remain  the  real  means 
by  which  the  sick  recover  health.  "We  amuse  our 
patients,"  said  one  modest  physician,  "while  nature 
cures  them."  Ambroise  Part?  wrote  on  the  wall  of  his 
hospital:  "I  dressed  the  wound  and  God  healed  it."1  It 
has  been  frequently  stated  by  physicians  that  of  all  sick 
persons  probably  two-thirds  would  recover  of  their  own 
accord  without  any  medical  assistance.  Rural  practi- 
tioners, especially  in  more  sparsely  settled  regions,  are  in 
a  position  to  observe  this  fact.  A  physician  who  formerly 
practised  in  a  lonely  hill  country  in  New  England  once 
told  me  that  in  his  early  life  he  was  constantly  surprised 
to  discover  that  his  patients  recovered  from  severe  forms 
of  disease  such  as  diphtheria,  pneumonia,  and  typhoid  fever 
without  any  assistance  from  him.  When  a  member  of 
the  family  was  taken  ill  a  red  flag  was  displayed.  If  he 
happened  to  see  it  while  making  his  rounds,  well.  If  not, 
the  patient  usually  recovered  anyway.  I  have  observed 
the  same  in  Newfoundland  and  Labrador.  It  is  not 
merely  that  diseases  have  their  term,  are  self-limited, 
but  that  the  human  body  has  means  at  its  disposal  to 
check  and  expel  them,  and  since  we  have  come  to  regard 
many  forms  of  disease  as  due  to  the  invasion  of  patho- 
genic microbes  we  no  longer  think  of  a  malign  principle 
in  the  body  itself.  The  mere  functioning  of  a  diseased 
organ  has  a  tendency  to  restore  that  organ  to  health. 
This  Vis  medicatrix,  to  give  a  name  to  our  ignorance, 

1  Quoted  by  Schofield.    Force  of  Mind,  p.  176. 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND  19 

must  work  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  nervous 
system,  since  no  other  part  of  our  organism  possesses  a 
mechanism  sufficiently  complex  and  universal,  but  these 
processes  never  emerge  into  consciousness,  but  must  be 
regarded  as  due  to  the  action  of  the  subconscious  mind. 
In  fact  as  we  descend  in  the  scale  of  conscious  life  we  find 
the  recuperative,  reparative  energy  intensifying,  and  act- 
ing apparently  with  greater  purposive  freedom.  If  a 
worm  be  cut  in  two  the  amputated  part  with  all  its  organs 
will  be  replaced.  In  reptiles  the  loss  of  a  leg  or  a  tail  is 
quickly  made  good  by  the  growth  of  a  new  member. 
Even  in  man,  in  whom  the  scope  of  the  subconscious  mind 
is  less,  we  see  a  thousand  means  employed  to  heal  the 
injury  or  to  check  and  eliminate  the  encroachments  of  the 
enemy.  "Lymph  is  poured  around  the  broken  bone, 
abscesses  are  sealed  up  with  an  impenetrable  wall,  new 
vascular  channels  are  dug  in  a  diseased  limb,  gouty 
poisons  are  extracted  in  the  convoluted  kidney  tubes."1 
Above  all,  in  the  marshaling  and  directing  of  the  so-called 
phagocytes  or  white  corpuscles  of  the  blood,  and  in  the 
self-production  of  antitoxic  substances,  we  see  a  power- 
ful effort  on  the  part  of  nature  to  resist  the  invading  armies 
of  disease  germs,  and  to  secure  immunity  from  the  same 
in  the  future.  Even  pain  and  the  painful  symptoms  of 
sickness  are  benevolent  warnings  which  sharply  remind 
us  of  our  condition  and  compel  the  repose  which  we 
require,  or  which  deter  us  from  admitting  into  our  system 
substances  which  would  be  injurious  to  us.  These 
statements  are  made  not  in  the  interest  of  a  theodicy,  but 
simply  as  physiologic  facts.  They  not  only  point  toward 
1Schofield,  Unconscious  Therapeutics,  p.  57. 


20  RELIGION  £ND  MEDICINE 

the  existence  of  a  subconscious  mind,  but  they  indicate 
how  great  a  part  that  mind  plays  in  the  curing  of  every 
form  of  disease.  Anything  which  weakens  or  depresses 
our  subsconcious  mind  exposes  us  to  disease  by  rendering 
us  less  able  to  resist  its  encroachments.  And  on  the 
other  hand  we  possess  such  allies  and  resources  within 
ourselves  that  apart  from  surgical  interference  the  phy- 
sician's chief  function  is  to  awaken  in  his  patient  the  will 
to  live  and  to  employ  every  element  of  resistance  which 
the  system  itself  affords.  Sir  William  Gull  goes  so  far 
as  to  say,  "What  shall  doctors  do?  Rest  and  be  still. 
The  workman  that  made  the  machine  can  repair  it."1 

As  an  example  of  this  let  me  relate  the  following.  Not 
long  ago  a  serious  abdominal  operation  was  performed 
on  a  lady  by  an  eminent  surgeon  in  the  presence  of  other 
surgeons  of  national  reputation.  Naturally  every  means 
to  avoid  sepsis  was  employed  which  their  art  suggested.  In 
spite  of  their  precautions  the  wound  became  badly  in- 
fected and  a  culture  revealed  the  presence  of  no  fewer 
than  three  species  of  pathogenic  microbes.  The  patient's 
temperature  rose  to  a  dangerous  degree  and  her  condition 
became  very  serious.  As  a  last  resort  the  opsonic  treat- 
ment was  employed  which  reduced  the  sepsis  and  the 
temperature.  The  patient,  however,  did  not  rally  and  her 
life  was  despaired  of,  one  unfavorable  symptom  being  that 
from  the  beginning  she  had  evinced  no  desire  to  live.  At 
length,  one  day,  she  turned  to  the  gentleman  who  had  per- 
formed the  operation  and  said  to  him:  "Doctor,  are  you 
prepared  to  be  the  physician  of  the  soul  as  well  as  of  the 
body?"  and  being  assured  as  to  this,  she  relieved  her 

1  Quoted  by  Schofield,  op.  tit.,  p.  65. 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND  21 

mind  of  a  burden  which  had  oppressed  her,  with  the 
result  that  from  that  very  day  she  began  to  mend  and  in 
a  short  time  she  was  completely  restored  to  health. 

3.  Memory.  If  we  limit  our  conception  of  the  soul  to 
its  conscious  activities  after  the  manner  of  the  older  psy- 
chologists, it  is  difficult  to  see  what  part  is  played  by 
those  latent  memories  which  form  more  than  ninety-nine 
hundredths  of  our  soul's  treasures.  What  becomes  of 
these  possessions  when  for  years  at  a  time  they  no  longer 
emerge  into  consciousness?  Do  they  cease  to  exist?  and 
are  they  created  anew  in  the  old  guise  and  wearing  the  old 
garments  when  we  happen  to  think  of  them?  Writers 
who  deny  the  subconscious  mind  imagine  that  they  avoid 
this  difficulty  by  saying  that  such  memories  exist  poten- 
tially, that  they  are  latent,  etc.,  but  this  explains  nothing.1 
The  plain  truth  is  that  not  the  millionth  part  of  the  mental 
possessions  of  an  educated  man  exists  in  his  consciousness 
at  any  one  time.  If  you  were  to  take  a  pen  and  a  block 
of  paper  and  sit  down  with  the  determination  of  writing 
without  external  assistance  all  that  you  really  know  or 

1  Professor  Pierce  of  Smith  College,  in  his  interesting  paper  entitled  "An 
Appeal  from  the  Prevailing  Doctrines  of  a  Detached  Subconsciousness" 
(1906),  seems  to  think  that  the  recurrence  of  our  latent  memories  in  con- 
sciousness can  be  accounted  for  by  the  modification  of  brain  and  nerve 
substance  effected  by  the  original  experience  or  by  a  series  of  experiences. 
No  doubt  all  our  memories  have  an  organic  basis,  or  rather  it  is  certain 
that  every  psychical  event  is  attended  by  a  corresponding  physical  event. 
But  to  suppose  that  these  traces  in  the  brain  or  other  modifications  of 
brain  substance  are  able  under  stimulation  to  transform  themselves  into 
thoughts  is  an  error  which  after  Tyndall  and  John  Fiske  ought  not  to  be 
revived  and  which  one  is  surprised  to  encounter  in  so  refined  a  thinker. 
It  is  an  example  of  the  difficulty  of  maintaining  a  consistent  denial  of 
subconscious  mental  activity. 


22  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

can  remember  you  would  be  surprised  to  see  how  soon 
you  would  reach  the  end  of  your  resources.  The  ex- 
perience and  laborious  acquisitions  of  years  can  be  ex- 
pressed on  a  few  sheets  of  paper,  just  as  the  achievements 
of  a  century  are  recorded  in  a  few  pages  of  an  encyclope- 
dia. As  a  matter  of  fact  the  little  lamp  of  consciousness 
illumines  only  a  tiny  fraction  of  the  soul's  domain.  Here 
and  there  a  few  points  are  illumined  while  all  around  the 
great  dewy  fields  are  wrapt  in  the  darkness  of  night.  This 
or  that  chamber  of  the  soul's  many  mansions  is  lighted, 
then  again  it  is  wrapt  in  the  darkness  of  night.  So  man 
lives  in  this  world  largely  a  stranger  to  himself.  Not 
only  do  we  possess  and  by  means  of  the  necessary  associa- 
tions can  we  recall  to  consciousness  innumerable  experi- 
ences which  once  claimed  our  attention,  but  apart  from 
these  there  is  an  even  vaster  stream  of  experience  consist- 
ing of  fleeting  impressions,  trivial  circumstances,  vanished 
faces  which  made  scarce  an  impression  on  us  which  are 
also  preserved.  The  delirium  of  fever,  a  familiar  per- 
fume, the  peculiar  lucidity  which  comes  to  the  drowning, 
a  dream,  returning  to  the  scenes  of  childhood,  etc.,  some- 
times overwhelm  us  with  a  flood  of  memories  of  events  so 
unimportant  that  they  made  scarce  an  impression  on  us 
when  they  occurred.  Coleridge's  account  of  the  serving 
maid  who  in  delirium  fluently  spoke  the  Rabbinical 
Hebrew  which  years  before  in  the  house  of  a  learned  pastor 
had  fallen  upon  her  unheeding  ear,  is  the  classical  example 
of  this.  During  all  these  years  these  memories  have 
lurked  in  the  obscure  depths  of  our  subconscious  mind. 
It  is  probable  that  we  forget  nothing.  Nor  is  the  physical 
basis  of  our  memories  confined  to  the  brain.  Wherever 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND  23 

there  is  nerve  substance  to  be  modified  there  is  memory. 
On  this  rest  all  the  marvelous  aptitudes  of  our  nervous 
system.  I  once  took  a  terrible  walk  with  an  Indian 
through  seven  miles  of  pathless  forest  in  Newfoundland 
on  a  night  so  dark  that  we  had  to  hold  our  hands  before 
our  faces  to  avoid  injury.  The  Indian  walked  steadily 
on,  now  skirting  a  deep  ravine,  now  turning  up  the  moun- 
tain to  avoid  an  invisible  swamp,  now  dodging  a  windfall, 
never  baffled,  never  at  a  loss,  and  never  stopping  to  consult 
the  compass.  At  the  end  of  several  hours  he  brought  me 
out  of  the  woods  within  a  hundred  feet  of  the  point  at 
which  we  had  entered  them.  I  asked  him  how  he  did  it 
and  he  replied,  "  Dunno,  dunno,  when  I  walk  like  dat  my 
feet  tink."  In  other  words  the  impression  on  his  mocca- 
sined  feet  conveyed  by  the  texture  and  configuration  of  the 
ground  over  which  he  had  passed  but  once  awoke  mem- 
ories which  enabled  him  to  reconstruct  in  the  dark  an 
accurate  image  of  the  whole  region.  The  mere  facts  of 
memory  are  sufficient  to  justify  the  conception  of  the 
subconscious  mind. 

We  have  all  had  the  experience  of  attempting  to  recall 
a  forgotten  word  or  name.  While  we  are  consciously 
searching  for  it,  it  obstinately  escapes  us.  We  give  up 
the  search  and  think  of  something  else  and  in  a  little 
while  the  desired  name  springs  into  consciousness.  A 
few  weeks  ago  I  was  spending  Sunday  in  a  town  where 
a  member  of  our  class  was  sojourning  in  a  large  sani- 
tarium. On  going  to  bed  on  Saturday  night  it  occurred 
to  me  that  I  had  promised  to  pay  this  gentleman  a  visit. 
His  name,  however,  which  was  a  peculiar  one,  had  wholly 
escaped  me.  I  lay  awake  for  an  hour  trying  to  recover  it 


24  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

by  placing  the  patient's  face  and  physical  appearance 
before  me.  In  vain,  it  would  not  come.  The  next 
morning,  however,  while  I  was  preaching  and  very  much 
engrossed  with  my  sermon,  I  suddenly  heard  almost  as  if 
a  voice  had  uttered  them  the  words  "Mr.  Blank."  A 
medical  friend  was  treating  a  nervous  patient  who  in  her 
disturbed  mental  condition  constantly  repeated  snatches 
of  poetry.  Wishing  to  test  the  accuracy  of  her  memory 
the  physician  committed  her  quotations  to  writing  and 
later  endeavored  to  verify  them.  After  a  good  deal  of 
trouble  he  succeeded  with  all  but  one  quotation,  as  to 
whose  source  he  could  form  no  conjecture.  Completely 
baffled  he  gave  up  the  attempt  until  one  morning,  when 
in  a  fit  of  abstraction  over  another  problem,  he  felt  him- 
self impelled  to  walk  to  his  bookcase  and  take  down  a 
volume  which  at  the  time  he  did  not  recognize.  He 
turned  over  the  pages  and  his  eye  soon  fell  upon  the  de- 
sired lines,  which  were  unimportant.  It  was  a  volume 
of  Longfellow  with  which  he  was  familiar,  though  the 
lines  in  question  had  made  no  impression  upon  him. 

The  most  striking  example  of  subconscious  memory 
occurs  in  the  so-called  state  of  dissociation.  A  person  is 
profoundly  hypnotized  and  certain  suggestions  are  made 
to  him.  Advice  is  given  to  him  or  he  is  told  to  perform 
certain  acts  when  he  awakens,  and  also  that  he  will  possess 
no  recollection  of  the  suggestion.  He  performs  the  acts, 
but  does  not  know  why  he  is  moved  to  do  so,  nor  if  the 
hypnosis  has  been  complete  can  he  remember  the  advice 
given  to  him  which  nevertheless  produces  its  effect.  The 
next  time  he  is  hypnotized,  however,  he  can  repeat  in  the 
minutest  detail  the  suggestions  given  to  him  in  a  former 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND  25 

hypnosis.  Thus  it  appears  that  conscious  and  subcon- 
scious memories  are  distinct  and  may  exist  independently 
of  each  other. 

This  is  more  plainly  exhibited  in  dissociations  which 
are  more  or  less  permanent.  This  will  be  discussed  later. 
Dr.  Morton  Prince's  "Dissociation  of  a  Personality"  has 
been  so  extensively  read  that  it  is  only  necessary  to  refer 
to  it.  Forel  and  Boris  Sidis  have  recorded  other  similar 
examples.  In  the  case  of  Miss  Beauchamp  the  dissocia- 
tion was  so  profound  as  to  produce  a  decided  change  of 
personality,  or  rather  a  series  of  personalities  some  of 
which  were  totally  ignorant  of  the  others,  while  some 
shared  the  others'  consciousness  and  memories. 

4.  I  shall  now  allude  to  certain  processes  of  the  conscious 
mind  in  which  the  subconscious  plays  an  interesting  part. 
Few  persons  who  think  and  who  create  are  able  to  work 
constantly  for  the  reason  that  they  cannot  depend  upon 
their  minds  to  furnish  them  with  the  necessary  ideas. 
Even  Balzac  had  his  periods  of  production  and  of  intense 
creative  activity  when  he  labored  like  a  miner  in  the 
bowels  of  the  earth,  and  his  periods  of  exhaustion  and  stag- 
nation. Goethe's  "Faust"  owes  its  supreme  excellence 
doubtless  to  the  fact  that  it  was  not  written  at  one  time: 
it  represents  the  best  thoughts,  the  noblest  inspirations  of 
Goethe's  mature  life.  But  most  great  poems  are  very  un- 
equal. They  have  their  great  passages,  as  has  Marlowe's 
Faustus,  in  which  the  poet's  soul  reveals  itself  with  all  its 
power,  and  they  have  many  dull  lines  which  would  never 
make  their  fortune.  Even  we  who  are  no  geniuses  have 
similar  experiences  in  our  little  efforts.  If  we  sit  down 
to  write  in  cold  blood  without  inspiration  or  reflection  the 


26  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

writing  is  forced  and  the  result  disappointing.  But  what 
we  call  reflection  is  seldom  the  conscious  thinking  out  of 
a  subject  with  all  its  details.  It  is  rather  the  saturating 
of  the  mind  with  the  matter  in  hand  and  then  turning 
away  from  it  and  allowing  it  to  work  itself  out  as  it  will. 
If  I  may  allude  to  so  uninteresting  a  subject  as  the  prepara- 
tion of  a  sermon  —  my  habit  is  to  select  a  text  and  a  sub- 
ject as  early  in  the  week  as  possible.  I  try  to  keep  this 
before  my  mind  until  I  find  my  mind  beginning  to  work, 
the  thought  fructifying,  the  parts  forming.  Then  I  dis- 
miss the  whole  matter  until  I  begin  to  write,  when  if  I  am 
lucky  it  is  almost  as  if  another  person  were  dictating  to 
me.  All  I  have  to  do  is  to  write  with  great  rapidity  and 
to  criticise.  The  thought  and  even  the  language  are  sup- 
plied. Dr.  Algernon  S.  Crapsey,  who  appears  to  think 
on  his  feet  as  well  as  any  man  I  ever  knew,  once  told  me 
that  in  preaching  he  usually  had  the  feeling  of  standing 
a  foot  or  two  from  the  speaker  and  of  listening  to  another 
voice  sometimes  with  surprise  and  even  with  disapproval. 
If  this  spell  is  broken  and  he  is  recalled  to  self-conscious- 
ness the  sermon  is  spoiled. 

In  discussing  this  subject  with  a  philosophical  writer 
the  other  day  this  gentleman  informed  me  that  he  has  had 
many  similar  experiences.  He  was  recently  engaged  on 
a  series  of  philosophical  monographs  for  a  new  encyclo- 
pedia, but  he  had  great  difficulty  in  composing  them. 
The  ideas  apparently  would  not  come  or  were  incoherent 
and  incongruous.  As  the  articles  had  to  be  finished  by  a 
certain  date  this  caused  him  much  annoyance  and  he 
decided  that  he  would  dismiss  the  subject  from  his  mind 
and  wait  until  it  suggested  itself.  Nor  did  he  have  to  wait 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND  27 

long,  for  in  a  few  days  he  awoke  with  a  strong  impulse 
to  write,  and  sitting  down  he  was  delighted  to  find  his 
monograph  writing  itself,  coming  forth  logically  and 
symmetrically  from  his  mind  without  any  hesitation  or 
effort  on  his  part,  the  very  language  apparently  given  to 
him.  He  was  afraid  that  on  reviewing  this  work  in  cold 
blood  he  might  find  it  like  a  dream  composition,  which 
seems  very  brilliant  to  the  sleeper,  but  sheer  gibberish  a 
few  moments  later.  His  own  judgment  and  that  of  the 
editor  of  the  encyclopedia  was  that  it  was  one  of  the 
solidest  and  best  pieces  of  work  he  had  done. 

We  all  know  the  importance  of  sleeping  on  a  difficult 
problem  and  the  proverbial  experience  of  many  peoples 
declares  that  sleep  brings  wisdom.  These  experiences 
occur  to  every  man  who  thinks  and  who  creates,  be  he 
poet,  philosopher,  artist,  composer,  or  writer  of  fiction. 
This  sense  of  spontaneity  and  affluence,  this  uprush  of 
powerful  thought  and  feeling  without  any  conscious 
effort  of  our  own,  is  what  we  call  inspiration,  the  breaking 
on  us  of  another  and  a  greater  spirit.  The  ancient  poets 
knew  this.  In  their  moments  of  rapt  vision  and  utterance 
they  felt  themselves  carried  away  by  a  higher  power  than 
their  own  which  they  called  the  Muse  (the  Inventress,  the 
goddess  of  memory)  and  there  is  a  certain  touching  illu- 
minating quality  in  such  compositions  which  distinguishes 
them  from  the  studied  efforts  of  conscious  reason.  Hence 
the  time-honored  comparison  of  inspiration  with  insanity. 

In  these  phenomena  psychologists  have  rightly  recog- 
nized the  action  of  the  subconscious  mind,  and  as  in  such 
creations  of  thought  the  subconscious  is  closely  associated 
with  the  conscious  intelligence  they  afford  particularly 


28  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

good  material  for  the  study  of  the  former.  The  works  of 
genius  bear  the  imprint  of  the  Universal  Spirit.  Their 
most  distinguishing  note  is  their  universality.  They  are 
not  addressed  to  one  generation  nor  are  they  limited  to 
one  place,  but  are  at  home  everywhere  and  are  contem- 
porary with  all  times.  But  although  this  is  true  and  al- 
though the  subconscious  mind  from  every  point  of  view 
is  more  generic,  and  in  closer  touch  with  the  universal 
processes  of  nature  than  our  conscious  intelligence,  yet 
these  two,  the  conscious  and  the  subconscious  minds,  are 
most  closely  united,  and  normally  form  one  personality, 
which,  however,  may  be  dissociated.  The  whole  mind 
(conscious  and  subconscious)  has  been  compared  to  a 
floating  iceberg  in  which  the  portion  which  emerges  above 
the  waves  is  supported  by  the  larger  mass  which  is  sub- 
merged. There  is  truth  in  this  figure:  its  defect  is  that, 
the  iceberg  being  homogeneous,  it  fails  to  distinguish  the 
real  differences  which  exist  between  these  activities.  To 
produce  results  of  permanent  value  or  even  to  function 
normally  the  conscious  and  the  subconscious  must  operate 
harmoniously  together.  The  subconscious  mind,  as  Hud- 
son affirms,  docs  not  originate  thought,  it  can  only  elaborate 
and  develop  it  along  the  lines  imposed  by  reason.  Left 
to  itself  it  can  only  originate  dreams  by  night  and  the 
delusions  of  the  insane  by  day.  Moreover,  it  must  follow 
strictly  the  general  tendencies  of  waking  thought.  The 
artist  does  not  solve  mathematical  problems  in  his  sleep. 
The  last  baffling  difficulty  in  the  way  to  invention  is  re- 
moved by  the  man  who  has  pursued  the  train  of  thought 
up  to  this  point.  The  novelist  receives  his  inspirations 
in  prose,  the  poet  in  verse,  the  painter  in  form  and  color, 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND  29 

and  the  musician  in  harmony  and  melody.  Moreover, 
with  all  their  universality  these  compositions  bear  on 
every  line  the  traits  of  individual  genius.  Along  with  his 
universal  genius,  his  pure  intuition  of  spiritual  truth, 
Shakespeare  possessed  an  astounding  empirical  knowledge 
of  life,  the  result  of  close  and  shrewd  observation.  Balzac 
introduces  a  wealth  of  detail  into  his  novels  which  would 
make  them  wearisome  were  it  not  offset  by  profound 
revelations  of  the  moral  life.  This  pepfect  balance  of  the 
inward  and  the  outward,  of  intuition  and  observation,  is 
to  be  found  only  in  the  greatest  creators.  In  lesser  men 
one  element  preponderates  over  the  other.  One  thing 
however  is  certain,  —  the  activity  •  of  the  subconscious 
mind  is  no  short  cut  to  renown,  no  substitute  for  hard 
work.  Before  we  can  fly  we  must  walk,  yes  run.  It  is 
only  when  the  soul  is  lifted  to  a  pitch  of  ardor  by  the  most 
intense  effort  of  thought  and  abstraction  that  the  sub- 
conscious mind  intervenes  to  complete  our  task  and  to  do 
for  us  what  we  cannot  do  for  ourselves.  This  is  also  true 
in  great  degree  of  its  therapeutic  activity. 

Few  poets  or  creative  artists  have  described  their  own 
mental  processes  with  psychological  insight.  These 
words  of  the  poet,  Ola  Hansson,  are  therefore  the  more 
valuable : 

"It  is,  I  believe,  a  matter  of  extraordinary  diffi- 
culty to  determine  how  and  when  the  poet  conceives 
the  ferment  which  impregnates  his  spirit,  and  which  in 
the  course  of  time  results  in  a  poetical  work.  I  know 
from  my  own  experience  that  it  is  usually  impossible  for 
me  to  determine  the  instant  of  the  first  germination  of  the 
idea  in  me  which  later  runs  as  the  scarlet  thread  through 


30  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

my  work.  Yet  there  is  a  certain  determinate  moment 
when  the  process  begins.  Now  there  is  something  grow- 
ing in  my  mind.  Something  has  affected  me  as  the 
revelation  affected  Saul  on  the  way  to  Damascus.  Sud- 
denly men  and  life  assume  new  relations,  new  illumina- 
tion, new  perspectives.  But  on  the  other  side  of  this  stage, 
the  emergence  of  poetic  thought  above  the  threshold  of  con- 
sciousness, ranges  a  whole  chain  of  small  hidden  processes 
of  which  I  had  only  a  general  and  vague  impression.  In 
all  stages  of  this  process  of  growth,  on  both  sides  of  the 
threshold  which  lies  between  consciousness  and  uncon- 
sciousness, something  is  present  to  which  we  may  well 
give  the  name  suggestion.  Whether  it  be  a  brightening 
of  the  atmosphere  or  an  expression  in  a  human  face,  or  a 
crisis  in  one's  own  life,  or  in  the  life  of  another,  or  a  pas- 
sage in  a  book,  or  a  hypothesis  in  a  scientific  work  —  the 
general  result  in  every  case  has  been  that  something 
which  hitherto  lay  bound  in  me,  awakened  from  its  magic 
sleep,  living  and  fruitful  as  a  germ  after  it  is  impregnated. 
Then  all  the  faculties  and  energies  of  my  personality  con- 
centrated themselves  as  by  a  magic  spell  on  this  one 
germinating  point.  All  the  blood  of  my  mind  flowed 
round  this  embryo,  weaving  its  tissues  and  envelopes  until 
at  last  the  moment  came  when  the  new  organic  creation 
took  the  form  and  lineaments  of  a  concrete  conscious 
thing. 

"At  the  same  moment,  the  poetical  idea  became  a  sug- 
gestive Kobold,  an  almighty  ruler,  a  parasite,  if  I  may  use 
the  expression,  in  me.  From  that  hour  onward,  it  was 
nothing  less  than  the  center  of  the  universe,  the  lighthouse 
on  the  sea  of  existence,  the  fountain  of  truth,  the  goddess 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND  31 

of  fortune  (Glucksherd),  the  magic  princess  in  the  fairy 
castle,  the  promised  land  east  of  the  sun  and  west  of  the 
moon,  the  gospel  of  the  future.  In  its  mode  of  operation, 
it  can  best  be  compared  to  the  wand  and  the  eye  of  the 
hypnotist. 

"In  early  times  men  called  this  the  sacred  moment  of 
conception  or  inspiration;  on  it  follows  the  period  of 
gestation  and  labor. 

"From  now  on  one  goes  the  whole  way  hand  in  hand 
with  the  suggesting  Kobold,  hypnotized,  will-less.  This 
whole  world,  this  whole  life  which  one  knew  hitherto  and 
still  knows  in  hours  which  lie  outside  the  magic  circle,  to 
be  artificial,  chaotic,  full  of  contradictions  and  inex- 
plicable, now  stands  before  one,  definite  and  luminous 
as  a  St.  Elmo's  fire,  as  a  magic  glow,  as  a  far-beckoning 
light  appears  at  night  to  one  demented.  The  whole 
infinite  complex  of  life's  interpretations  and  theories  of 
the  universe,  of  human  individualities,  and  personal  fates 
and  their  determining  factors,  of  historic  knowledge  and 
one's  own  experiences,  all  converge  into  this  one  point 
at  which  one  stares  till  he  is  blind,  which  draws  all  things 
to  itself,  and  which  freed  in  us  in  the  moment  of  deliver- 
ance I  have  described,  becomes  the  focus  of  our  inner 
life."  l 

5.  Perception  of  the  lapse  of  time.  Ability  to  estimate 
the  lapse  of  time  during  our  waking  hours  is  an  accom- 
plishment which  few  persons  possess.  Apart  from  exter- 
nal aids  such  as  timepieces  and  the  movement  of  the 

1  Taken  from  Hanssen's  interesting  discussion  of  the  subconscious 
element  in  art  which  he  contributed  to  Hans  Schmidkunz'  Psychologic 
der  Suggestion,  Stuttgart,  Von  Ferd.  Erke,  1892,  s.  260  ff. 


32  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

heavenly  bodies,  our  reckoning  of  time  is  probably  effected 
by  the  addition  of  the  units  of  our  perceptions.  As  these 
constantly  vary  they  afford  no  fixed  criteria,  and  our  time- 
sense  is  therefore  very  inaccurate.  In  sleep,  however,  it 
is  different.  Our  subconscious  mind  possesses  an  appre- 
ciation of  the  passage  of  time  which  our  conscious  mind 
cannot  approximate  and  of  which  at  present  we  can  give 
no  explanation.  Almost  all  persons  whose  duties  call 
them  to  awake  at  a  certain  hour  of  the  day  or  night,  after 
a  little  practice  have  no  difficulty  in  doing  so.  In  my 
early  life  I  acted  as  chaplain  of  a  college  and  my  duties 
required  me  to  awake  an  hour  and'  a  half  earlier  than  I 
was  accustomed  to  do.  For  the  first  few  weeks  I  em- 
ployed an  alarm  clock,  but  finding  that  it  disturbed  my 
sleep  I  dispensed  with  it  and  in  the  course  of  six  years  I 
overslept  only  once,  and  usually  I  awoke  within  five  or 
ten  minutes  of  the  time  I  proposed  to  myself. 

This  capacity  is  also  shared  to  a  marked  degree  by  the 
animals.  Both  dogs  and  horses  are  frequently  aware 
of  the  recurrence  of  Sunday  and  resent  being  compelled 
to  work  on  that  day.  While  living  in  the  country  I  owned 
a  game-cock  who  used  to  sleep  in  a  tree  directly  under  my 
window.  Every  night  at  about  the  hour  of  twelve  he 
would  awake,  flap  his  wings  and  crow  two  or  three  times, 
when  he  would  go  to  sleep  again.  I  timed  him  frequently 
and  he  was  seldom  ten  minutes  out  of  the  way.  I  gave 
one  of  his  offspring  to  an  iron  worker  who  had  to  waken 
at  three  in  the  morning  to  go  to  the  mill.  Every  evening 
the  cock  was  placed  on  the  foot  of  the  bed  where  he 
would  waken  his  master  summer  and  winter  with  great 
regularity.  A  very  intelligent  Micmac  Indian  who  for 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND  33 

many  years  had  observed  the  flight  of  waterfowl  and  the 
migrations  of  the  caribou  in  Newfoundland  informed  me 
that  their  movements  take  place  with  astonishing  regu- 
larity from  year  to  year. 

Even  more  striking  is  the  appreciation  of  time  through 
hypnotic  and  post-hypnotic  suggestion,  a  very  interesting 
account  of  which  is  given  by  Bramwell.1  "The  sug- 
gestions (Delbceuf's)  were  to  be  carried  out  after  the 
lapse  of  350,  700,  900,  1500,  1600,  1150,  1300,  and  3300 
minutes  respectively,  were  made  at  varying  hours  of  the 
day  and  night  while  some  fell  due  at  night  after  the  lapse 
of  several  days.  Three  of  the  suggestions  were  fulfilled 
at  the  moment  they  fell  due,  four  were  carried  out,  but  not 
at  the  exact  time.  In  these  an  impulse  to  carry  out  the 
suggestion  arose  at  the  right  moment."  The  two  young 
women  on  whom  the  experiments  were  made  were  im- 
perfectly educated  and  could  with  difficulty  tell  time  by 
the  clock.  It  would  therefore  have  been  impossible  for 
them  to  reduce  the  minutes  to  hours  and,  by  comparison 
with  the  moment  when  the  suggestion  was  made,  calculate 
the  time  when  it  would  fall  due.  Bramwell's  own  experi- 
ments on  the  subconscious  time  sense  are  not  less  interest- 
ing. One  of  his  patients  was  directed  at  the  end  of  five 
hours  and  twenty  minutes  to  make  a  cross  on  a  piece  of 
paper  and  to  write  down  the  time  she  believed  it  to  be 
without  looking  at  a  clock  or  a  watch.  The  suggestion 
was  made  in  the  so-called  somnambulistic  state  and  the 
subject  retained  no  recollection  of  it  after  waking.  It  was 
carried  out  at  the  moment  it  fell  due.  Five  minutes  be- 
fore the  appointed  time  the  patient  became  restless  and 

1  Hypnotism,  p.  114!!. 


34  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

said  "I  must  do  something,  but  I  don't  know  what,"  and 
on  making  the  cross  at  the  right  moment  said  to  her 
mother:  "It's  all  silliness."  Out  of  fifty-five  experi- 
ments performed  by  Dr.  Bramwell  on  the  same  subject, 
forty-five  were  completely  successful  and  in  no  case  did 
the  error  exceed  five  minutes. 

6.  The  action  of  the  subconscious  mind  in  certain  ex- 
periences of  life.  In  the  course  of  our  lives  most  of  us 
are  confronted  with  tasks  or  emergencies  which  require 
strength,  courage,  resourcefulness  in  excess  of  our  ordinary 
powers,  or  we  undergo  experiences  which  without  con- 
scious effort  on  our  part  transform  us,  shatter  the  habits 
of  a  lifetime  and  lift  us  to  a  higher  plane  of  being.  A 
woman  is  engaged  in  the  ordinary  duties  of  her  vocation 
with  just  sufficient  strength  for  daily  needs  when  an  un- 
usual demand  is  made  of  her.  Perhaps  several  of  her 
children  are  very  ill  at  the  same  time.  For  weeks  she 
seldom  undresses  herself,  she  snatches  her  food  at  irregu- 
lar hours.  She  sleeps  but  little,  but  night  and  day  is 
engaged  in  the  hardest  kind  of  work,  which  taxes  her 
moral  nature  even  more  than  her  physical  nature.  Yet 
she  does  not  break  down  and  she  knows  that  she  will  be 
sustained  until  the  emergency  is  past,  and  she  performs 
tasks  which  without  the  stimulus  of  love  and  responsi- 
bility would  be  impossible. 

Or  we  are  intensely  interested  and  preoccupied  in  what 
we  are  doing  and  we  lose  all  sense  of  weariness  and  effort. 
Sometimes  in  hunting  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  I  have 
mounted  my  horse  at  daybreak  and  have  spent  the  whole 
day  in  the  hardest  kind  of  walking  and  climbing,  return- 
ing to  camp  at  nine  or  ten  o'clock  at  night  without  serious 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND  35 

sense  of  fatigue,  apparently  quite  able  to  set  out  again  at 
once  had  the  light  permitted.  This  was  due  to  the  in- 
tense excitement  of  the  chase,  for  on  other  occasions,  e.g. 
in  breaking  camp,  half  that  amount  of  work  would  com- 
pletely exhaust  me.  This  is  the  reason  why,  except  in  the 
single  point  of  mountain  climbing,  the  tenderfoot  can  fre- 
quently wear  out  the  seasoned  guide  to  whom  the  pursuit 
of  game  is  an  old  story  and  who  is  therefore  more  keenly 
alive  to  fatigue. 

Or  our  life  is  threatened,  or  someone  we  love  is  ex- 
posed to  sudden  danger,  and  we  exhibit  a  coolness,  a 
resourcefulness,  a  capacity  for  swift  and  intelligent  ac- 
tion which  astonishes  the  onlookers.  Heroic  actions  are 
performed,  clever  expedients  are  conceived  and  exe- 
cuted with  the  rapidity  of  thought.  Our  friends  compli- 
ment us  on  our  courage  and  composure,  but  the  chances 
are  that  we  were  totally  unaware  of  what  we  were  doing. 
In  company  with  a  guide  I  was  once  caught  in  a  long 
rapid  through  which  it  was  considered  impossible  for 
a  canoe  to  pass.  I  can  remember  the  first  sickening 
sense  of  fear  which  passed  away  almost  instantly  when 
I  began  to  wield  my  paddle;  then  my  mind  became  a 
blank  until  the  moment  when  I  found  myself  floating  in 
a  pool  half  a  mile  below,  with  only  a  few  teacupfuls  of 
water  in  the  canoe.  I  have  looked  at  that  terrible  water 
since  and  I  cannot  understand  how  we  came  through  it 
alive. 

Again,  a  new  affection  enters  our  life  with  all  its  cleans- 
ing energy.  Old  habits  fall  from  us,  our  temptations 
and  vices  lose  all  power  over  us.  Our  moral  nature  has 
received  such  an  increment  of  strength  from  the  uprush 


36  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

of  new  and  powerful  feelings  and  motives  that  that  which 
was  almost  impossible  before  we  perform  with  scarce  an 
effort.  Maternal  love  also  springs  from  the  same  sub- 
conscious sources  and  operates  in  a  manner  no  less  mar- 
velous and  awe-inspiring. 

In  this  connection  I  should  like  to  call  attention  to 
sexual  love  and  attraction.  No  doubt  the  most  bril- 
liant and  suggestive  discussion  of  this  subject  is  Schopen- 
hauer's classical  chapter.  Schopenhauer  recognizes  the 
instinctive,  subconscious  basis  of  genuine  love  and  passion 
that  distinguishes  it  sharply  from  friendship  which  is 
based  on  rational  considerations.  He  exalts  and  lauds 
love's  mystical  rapture,  its  sublime  renunciations  and 
sacrifices,  even  its  crimes.  Love  is  not  the  offspring  of 
cultured  reason,  it  is  not  bound  by  the  conventions  of 
society.  It  frequently  enters  our  lives  as  a  vast  elemental 
force  sweeping  all  before  it  and  leaving  ruin  in  its  track. 
At  last  Schopenhauer  comes  to  the  interesting  question  why 
it  is  that  two  persons  fall  in  love  with  each  other.  What  is 
there  in  these  two  human  beings  that  differentiates  them 
from  the  rest  of  mankind  to  such  a  degree  that  the  world 
itself  depends  upon  their  possession  of  each  other,  and 
all  other  men  and  women  are  absolutely  indifferent  to 
them  ?  Schopenhauer  answers  this  question  by  affirming 
that  the  Universal  Unconscious  Mind  perceives  that 
these  two  persons  are  best  adapted  to  produce  between 
them  a  perfect  offspring,  and  that  the  Will  which  is  funda- 
mental to  the  universe  impels  them  to  this  act.  There  is 
doubtless  truth  in  this  statement,  which  is  only  a  more 
poetic  rendering  of  the  law  of  sexual  selection.  We  agree 
with  Schopenhauer  as  to  the  subconscious  basis  of  all 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND  37 

genuine  love.1  It  is  this  which  gives  love  its  infinite 
quality,  it  is  this  which  makes  it  blind  to  the  ordinary 
considerations  of  reason  and  conscience.  It  opens  to 
us  a  new  and  mysterious  world  of  rapture  and  despair. 
We  feel  ourselves  swayed  by  impulses  of  which  we  can 
give  no  account  and  over  which  we  have  little  control. 
The  world  for  us  begins  anew,  and  we  wander  for  a  while 
in  that  magical  garden  which  opens  once  in  our  lives  to 
receive  us  all.  It  may  be  doubted,  however,  if  to-day 
the  production  of  the  perfect  child  who  is  yet  to  be  bora 
forms  the  sole  ground  for  the  irresistible  attraction  which 
so  powerfully  draws  two  human  beings  together.  The 
majority  of  women  and  a  good  many  men  have  passed 
beyond  the  stage  where  mere  physical  perfections  enthrall 
them,  and  as  for  talent,  brilliancy,  and  moral  excellence, 
these,  alas,  offer  no  guarantee  of  their  perpetuation  in  off- 
spring, as  the  children  of  the  most  gifted  parents  con- 
stantly prove.  And  yet  all  permanently  happy  unions 
have  their  subconscious  basis.  There  is  something  in 
every  loved  man  or  woman  which  cannot  be  grasped  by 
reason  or  expressed  in  words.  We  intimate  .this  by 
saying  that  the  person  in  question  is  congenial  to  us,  i.e., 
that  he  or  she  partakes  of  our  genius  or  spirit.  Without 
this  affinity  in  the  subconscious  realm,  the  deeper  union 
of  hearts  never  takes  place.  With  it  beauty  and  even 
intellectual  brilliancy  may  be  dispensed  with.  It  is  this 
which  lifts  true  love  out  of  the  physical  and  the  sensual, 
and  which  gives  it  its  profound  moral  significance,  for  the 

1  In  spite  of  Schopenhauer's  scientific  mistakes,  it  is  interesting  to 
note  how  many  of  his  philosophical  conceptions  have  been  justified  by 
subsequent  science. 


38  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

subconscious  mind  is  purer  than  the  conscious  and  if  any 
part  of  our  being  is  permanent,  we  may  believe  this  to  be 
such. 

7.  The  Subconscious  Mind  in  Religion.  In  every  form 
of  religion  there  is  a  preponderating  non-rational  element, 
and  it  is  in  this  sphere  that  the  most  characteristic  phe- 
nomena of  religion  —  faith,  awe,  reverence,  fear,  love, 
ecstasy,  rapture  —  take  place.  This  sphere  is  constantly 
invaded  by  reason,  but  it  obstinately  defends  its  right  to 
existence.  No  sooner  is  mystery  banished  from  one 
domain  of  religion  than  it  reappears  in  another.  This 
constitutes  the  struggle  of  religion  and  science  which  at 
bottom  is  the  necessary  reconciliation  of  the  needs  of  the 
conscious  mind  with  those  of  the  subconscious.  Libraries 
have  been  written  on  this  problem,  for  the  most  part 
by  men  who  lacked  the  key  to  its  solution.  Again  and 
again  philosophers  have  attempted  to  analyze  and  ex- 
plain religion,  i.e.,  to  make  it  purely  rational,  but  their 
attempts  have  failed,  for  in  religion  as  in  music  and 
poetry  there  is  an  infinite  element  which  defies  analysis. 
Its  motive  power  springs  from  the  obscure  depths  of  the 
subconscious  mind,  and  to  cut  this  nerve  paralyzes  its 
functioning.  Here  the  instinct  of  the  religious  believer 
must  be  respected.  He  does  not  regard  these  rationaliz- 
ing investigations  as  constituting  religion,  for  he  feels 
that  the  springs  of  his  religious  life  lie  elsewhere,  in  the 
obscure  recognition  of  the  Infinite  Spirit  by  the  finite 
spirit,  in  a  sense  of  dependence,  of  guilt,  of  love  and  filial 
trust,  in  all  those  deep  emotions  which  refuse  to  be  trans- 
lated into  words,  but  which  act  as  the  most  powerful 
motives  of  life.  To  banish  these  would  be  to  take  the 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND  39 

mystical  and  poetical  element  out  of  life,  and  to  sap  re- 
ligion at  its  root.  But  this  cannot  be  done.  When  the 
rationalizing  process  has  been  carried  to  a  point  at  which 
the  religious  life  is  really  threatened  there  is  always  a 
reaction,  of  which  we  see  a  striking  example  to-day.  The 
longer  and  more  persistent  the  rationalistic  attack,  the 
more  vigorous  is  the  mystical  and  spiritualistic  revolt, 
and  yet  each  such  struggle  brings  the  day  of  final  recon- 
ciliations a  little  nearer  by  forcing  upon  men  the  legitimacy 
of  the  conflicting  claims.  On  the  other  hand,  were 
reason  to  ignore  the  claims  of  religion,  or  in  other  words 
were  the  conscious  mind  to  become  dissociated  from  the 
subconscious  in  this  highest  region  of  their  activity,  the 
result  would  be  disastrous  to  both.  Science  would  be- 
come petty  and  uninteresting  and  religion  would  sur- 
render itself  to  vagaries  and  superstitions  of  every  kind. 
But  this  reason  cannot  do  for  it  recognizes  in  religion  its 
supreme  problem.  Naturally  those  who  look  upon  man's 
spiritual  evolution  as  a  transition  from  unconsciousness 
to  consciousness  will  take  a  different  view  of  this  subject; 
but  we  do  not  share  this  conception.  We  believe  that 
those  elements  of  being  which  belong  to  the  realm  of  the 
subconscious,  will  and  emotion,  are  fundamental  and 
permanent,  and  that  to  eradicate  these  would  be  to 
annihilate  progress. 

8.  The  Physiological  Action  of  the  Subconscious  Mind. 
In  this  section  we  come  to  those  operations  of  the  subcon- 
scious mind  with  which  from  a  therapeutic  point  of  view 
we  are  most  concerned.  These  facts  have  been  elicited 
largely  through  the  instrumentality  of  hypnotic  suggestion, 
since  it  is  by  this  means  that  the  necessary  dissociation  of 


40  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

the  subconscious  mind  most  readily  takes  place.  While 
it  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  our  conscious  mind 
can  effect  no  changes  in  our  physical  functions,  since  the 
heart's  action  can  be  altered  by  conscious  attention  and 
the  cheek  is  suffused  with  blood  in  consequence  of  the 
spoken  word,  yet  it  is  certain  that  the  action  of  the  sub- 
conscious mind  is  far  more  profound  and  universal.  I 
shall  not  now  rehearse  the  long  list  of  physiological 
changes  which  can  be  effected  by  suggestion  as  these  will 
be  stated  more  fully  in  a  subsequent  chapter;  here  I  will 
mention  only  a  few  which  have  occurred  under  my  own 
observation.  The  temperature  of  the  body  can  be  ele- 
vated or  lowered,  and  the  pulse  quickened  or  retarded. 
Perspiration  can  be  produced,  the  action  of  the  intestines 
can  be  stimulated,  resulting  in  the  removal  of  constipa- 
tion. The  occurrence  of  the  menstrual  period  can  be 
retarded  or  accelerated,  its  duration  and  volume  regulated, 
and  its  painful  symptoms  alleviated.  Many  forms  of 
pain  depending  on  functional  or  trophic  disturbance  can 
be  removed  and  parts  of  the  body  rendered  insensible  to 
pain.  The  sense  of  hearing  in  certain  forms  of  deafness 
can  be  quickened.  Some  forms  of  eczema  can  be  re- 
moved, and  some  forms  of  asthma  can  be  checked  at  once. 
Stammering  can  be  controlled,  and  nervous  dyspepsia 
can  frequently  be  cured.  To  this  short  list  which  is  taken 
almost  at  random  from  our  clinical  notes,  Beraheim, 
Forel,  Bramwell,  and  Dubois  add  many  other  sim- 
ilar examples  in  support  of  the  physiological  action  of 
suggestion.  They  prove  beyond  question  that  our  sub- 
conscious mind  acts  through  the  instrumentality  of  our 
whole  nervous  system,  both  cerebro-spinal  and  sym- 


THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  MIND  41 

pathetic,  and  that  through  this  complex  mechanism  it 
can  effect  important  changes  in  our  physical  functions. 
Its  action  on  the  brain  is  seen  more  clearly  in  its  modi- 
fications of  consciousness,  its  control  of  the  sympathetic 
system  is  indicated  by  trophic  changes  such  as  I  have  enu- 
merated. Neither  can  it  any  longer  be  denied  by  men 
who  are  in  possession  of  the  facts  now  embodied  in  the 
orthodox  literature  of  medicine  and  psychology. 

Before  bringing  this  long  chapter  to  a  close,  let  us  look 
back  over  the  path  we  have  traversed  and  draw  a  few 
inferences  as  to  the  strange  power  of  which  we  have  been 
so  long  ignorant,  though  it  resides  within  us  and  mani- 
fests itself  in  so  many  of  the  most  important  acts  of  our 
lives.  It  must  be  evident  to  anyone  who  surveys  even 
the  brief  series  of  facts  we  have  brought  forward,  that  the 
subconscious  mind  is  no  pathological  phenomenon,  the 
psychical  concomitant  of  hysteria.  Janet  came  to  this 
conclusion  as  did  Charcot  before  him  from  a  too  lim- 
ited induction  of  the  facts  in  question.  While  the 
Nancy  school,  especially  Lie'bault  and  Bernheim,  and 
other  practitioners  like  Forel,  Bramwell,  Moll,  Lloyd, 
Tuckey  and  others  were  testing  these  principles  of 
psychotherapeutics  by  applying  them  to  thousands  of 
patients,  Charcot  and  his  disciples  contented  themselves 
with  hypnotizing  a  dozen  or  fifteen  hysterical  young 
women,  and  from  these  limited  observations  they  have 
drawn  their  limited  conclusions.  According  to  their  view 
only  hysterical  patients  can  be  hyponotized.  On  the  con- 
trary, all  experienced  practitioners  in  this  field  state  that 
between  ninety  and  ninety-five  per  cent  of  all  peoples  on 
whom  the  experiment  has  been  tried  can  be  influenced 


42  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

hypnotically.  Janet  must  therefore  regard  all  mankind 
as  suffering  from  hysteria.  The  element  of  truth  in 
Charcot's  statement  is  that  hysteria  is  a  disease  of  the 
subconscious  mind.  This,  however,  is  not  his  discovery. 
A  general  survey  of  the  facts  leads  us  to  a  very  different 
conclusion.  A  power  which  quickens  our  intellectual  pro- 
cesses, which  heightens  our  will  power,  cannot  be  regarded 
as  pathological.  The  subconscious  mind  is  a  normal  part 
of  our  spiritual  nature.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that 
it  is  purer,  more  sensitive  to  good  and  evil,  than  our  con- 
scious mind.  While  normally  these  two  energies  are  closely 
united,  they  can  be  dissociated  in  their  functioning  and 
in  their  memories.  Although  the  subconscious  mind  has 
more  direct  control  of  our  physical  processes  than  the 
conscious,  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  limit  its  action  to  this 
sphere,  or  to  regard  it  as  the  mere  psychical  concomitant 
of  the  sympathetic  nervous  system,  though  it  may  well 
be  this.  On  the  contrary,  we  have  seen  the  important 
part  it  plays  in  religion,  in  memory,  and  in  the  higher 
creations  of  thought.  Neither  should  we  regard  it  as  a 
mere  generalized  mind-stuff  without  personal  character- 
istics. Though  it  is  doubtless  more  generic  and  in  closer 
contact  with  the  Universal  Spirit  than  reason,  yet  its  crea- 
tions bear  the  imprint  of  individual  genius.  While  it  acts 
in  conjunction  with  reason,  its  mode  of  activity  is  very 
different.  Apparently  it  cannot  originate  thought,  but  the 
materials  given  it  can  work  to  the  desired  end  with  the 
astonishing  facility,  ease,  and  swiftness  which  belong  to 
the  acts  of  instinct.  Further  speculation  into  its  nature 
and  its  relation  to  consciousness  would  lead  us  too  far 
from  our  purpose. 


CHAPTER  III 

SUGGESTION 

THE  most  important  fact  which  has  yet  been  discovered 
in  regard  to  the  subconscious  mind  is  that  it  is  suggestible, 
i.e.,  it  is  subject  to  moral  influence  and  direction.  In 
this  it  does  not  differ  from  our  ordinary  consciousness, 
except  that  under  certain  conditions  it  is  more  amenable 
to  external  control,  and  it  is  in  closer  contact  with  our 
physical  functions.  All  human  beings  are  influenced  by 
their  affections  and  by  their  relations  with  others,  but  some 
much  more  than  others.  There  are  positive  dominating 
personalities  whose  mission  in  life  seems  to  be  to  influence 
others,  and  there  are  receptive,  passive  natures  which 
readily  yield  themselves  to  such  influence.  So,  in  the 
subconscious  realm,  some  persons  are  far  more  suggestible 
than  others.  At  the  outset  of  this  discussion  I  should  like 
to  remove  from  the  mind  of  the  reader,  if  it  is  necessary, 
the  idea  that  there  is  anything  morbid  or  uncanny  in  sug- 
gestion. On  the  contrary  it  is  something  which  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  we  practise  every  day  of  our 
lives.  A  little  girl  falls  down  and  hurts  herself.  Mother 
kisses  the  spot  and  "makes  it  well."  We  control  our 
children,  if  we  are  wise,  not  by  harshly  rebuking  their 
innocent  naughtiness,  but  by  diverting  their  minds,  i.e.t 
suggesting  something  better.  Politeness  compels  us  to 
control  our  annoyance  under  a  pleasant  demeanor  and  in 

43 


44  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

a  little  while  it  passes  away.  We  are  kept  awake  by  un- 
pleasant thoughts  and  we  turn  away  from  them  by  sug- 
gesting to  ourselves  thoughts  that  arc  more  agreeable, 
and  we  go  to  sleep.  A  few  words  of  commendation  and 
praise  brighten  the  whole  day.  If  we  can  forget  our  pain 
for  a  little  while  the  pain  is  apt  to  cease.  In  its  thera- 
peutic aspects  suggestion  is  like  all  science,  a  particular 
application  of  common  knowledge. 

The  psychological  principle  on  which  suggestion  rests 
is  known  as  dissociation,  the  concentration  of  the  mind 
on  some  things  to  the  exclusion  of  others.  This  can 
readily  be  extended  to  the  isolation  of  the  subconscious 
mind  from  the  conscious,  and  as  the  former  is  the  more 
potent  factor  in  the  removal  of  disease,  it  is  to  the  sub- 
conscious mind  that  suggestions  are  usually  addressed. 
Yet  I  would  not  by  any  means  limit  suggestion  to  the 
treatment  of  disease.  Its  power  is  coextensive  with  life 
itself.  The  most  valuable  lessons  we  learn  are  not  given 
us  in  the  form  of  didactic  instructions,  —  they  are  those 
germinal  thoughts  which  drop  into  our  minds  as  the  seed 
corn  drops  into  the  soil  prepared  for  it,  which  the  mind 
appropriates  and  transforms  and  which  end  by  transform- 
ing us. 

In  therapeutic  practice  the  action  of  suggestion  rests 
largely  upon  faith.  Whatever  the  method  employed,  its 
success  depends  upon  the  belief  in  the  mind  of  the  patient 
that  it  is  likely  to  attain  the  desired  result.  A  curative 
suggestion  is  an  effect  obtained  through  the  conviction 
that  it  is  about  to  take  place.  I  tell  a  young  girl  that  she 
is  blushing  and  the  chances  are  that  she  will  blush  imme- 
diately. I  place  a  man  in  a  comfortable  reclining  chair, 


SUGGESTION  45 

cut  off  the  stream  of  external  sensations  by  darkening  the 
room  and  insuring  quiet,  and  I  earnestly  tell  him  that  in 
a  few  moments  he  will  be  asleep.  If  he  knows  that 
hundreds  of  other  persons  have  undergone  this  experience 
he  will  be  more  certain  to  accept  my  assurance  and  to 
obey  the  suggestion.  I  visit  a  woman  who  has  been  bed- 
ridden for  months  or  years,  convince  myself  that  her  in- 
ability to  move  does  not  proceed  from  true  paralysis 
and  I  assure  her  that  she  can  arise  and  I  earnestly 
command  her  to  do  so,  which  she  proceeds  to  do.  A 
patient  comes  to  me  in  violent  agitation  with  palpitat- 
ing heart  and  distress  of  mind.  I  soothe  him  by  a  few 
gentle  and  quiet  words  and  tell  him  that  his  nervous- 
ness is  passing  away,  that  his  heart  is  beating  quietly  and 
regularly  and  that  in  a  few  moments  he  will  be  calm  and 
happy.  He  listens  to  me,  believes  me,  and  the  prediction 
is  fulfilled.  Another  patient  is  suffering  from  acute  pain. 
I  divert  her  mind,  place  my  hand  on  the  suffering  part  to 
heighten  the  impression  that  something  is  about  to  be 
done  for  her,  or  to  direct  her  subconscious  mind  more 
strongly  to  it,  and  I  confidently  inform  her  that  the  pain 
is  diminishing,  that  it  is  going  down  by  degrees  and  that 
in  a  given  time,  five  minutes,  it  will  have  disappeared. 
This  also  is  completely  successful.  Still  another  is  suffer- 
ing from  constipation.  I  inform  this  one  that  the  action 
of  the  intestines  can  be  controlled  by  the  mind,  that  many 
persons  have  been  cured  by  suggestion  and  that  for  the 
next  few  days  he  will  have  two  evacuations  daily.  At  the 
end  of  a  week  he  returns  and  asks  me  to  reduce  the  num- 
ber to  one.  These  are  not  fancy  pictures,  they  are  simply 
recitals  of  actual  occurrences.  They  point  to  the  fact  that  . 


46  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

the  mind  has  immense  power  over  the  functions  of  the 
body  and  that  the  active  instrumentality  which  is  faith 
can  frequently  be  directed  by  suggestion.  Great  as  is 
the  efficacy  of  this  instrument  in  a  large  group  of  dis- 
orders, its  action  is  strictly  limited.  The  physiological 
changes  involved  in  the  cases  I  have  alluded  to  are  doubt- 
less due  to  the  stimulation  or  inhibition  of  various  organs 
through  their  controlling  nerve  centers  by  means  which  we 
do  not  as  yet  fully  understand.  If,  however,  these  organs 
through  disease  or  lesion  are  incapable  of  responding  to 
such  stimuli,  no  results  will  follow.  It  is  useless  to  address 
suggestions  to  a  brain  withered  by  paresis,  or  to  command 
a  hand  shaken  by  paralysis  agitans  to  stand  still.  If  the 
patient  above  mentioned  had  been  suffering  from  valvular 
disease  of  the  heart,  my  word  would  have  no  effect  upon 
the  heart's  action.  A  toothache  caused  by  the  irritation 
of  a  nerve  frequently  can  be  cured  by  suggestion,  but  the 
pain  caused  by  the  pressure  of  an  abscess  cannot  be  so 
removed.  For  the  same  reason  purely  organic  mental 
cases  such  as  idiocy,  paresis,  etc.,  can  never  be  improved 
by  suggestion,  because  such  diseases  rest  upon  organic 
degeneration.  Yet  in  many  forms  of  organic  disease,  e.g., 
in  tuberculosis,  the  importance  of  suggestion  as  a  sub- 
sidiary agent  is  not  to  be  overlooked.  Pain  can  be 
checked,  coughing  can  frequently  be  controlled  or  dimin- 
ished, sound  sleep  can  be  obtained.  Above  all  the  patient 
can  be  inspired  with  the  firm  conviction  that  the  means 
employed  will  be  successful  and  that  he  will  be  restored 
to  health.  Moreover,  it  is  well  known  that  the  injury  of 
one  organ  will  frequently  derange  or  inhibit  the  function 
of  another,  which  latter  may  be  restored  by  suggestion. 


SUGGESTION  47 

Further,  the  value  of  suggestion  as  an  adjunct  to  sur- 
gery is  now  generally  recognized.  The  most  successful 
surgeons  are  beginning  to  appreciate  the  importance  of 
the  moral  preparation  of  their  patients  for  operations. 
By  the  calming  and  stilling  of  the  patient's  natural  ap- 
prehensions and  by  direct  suggestion,  some  of  the  worst 
effects  of  ether  and  the  knife  can  be  avoided  or  reduced 
to  a  minimum.  Moral  shock  can  be  eliminated.  Resist- 
ance to  etherization  and  the  ensuing  nausea  can  fre- 
quently be  overcome,  with  the  result  that  the  patient 
suffers  less  and  recovers  more  rapidly.  This  is  espe- 
cially to  be  remembered  in  the  case  of  nervous  and  timid 
persons  and  in  diseases  which  tend  to  disturb  the  mental 
and  moral  faculties,  e.  g.  in  operations  for  exophthalmic 
goitre  which  Mobius  defines  as  "  crystallized  fear." 
Quite  recently  three  women  were  about  to  be  operated 
on  for  this  disease  in  a  hospital  in  the  middle  West.  The 
first  patient  reached  the  etherizing  chamber  in  a  state  of 
terror  which  the  operating  surgeon  cleverly  diagnozed  as 
"  stage  fright."  Her  temperature  rose  to  about  104°, 
her  pulse  registered  more  than  200  beats,  and  it  was  very 
evident  that  an  operation  was  impossible.  The  patient 
accordingly  was  taken  back  to  her  room  where  she  died 
within  an  hour.  The  second  patient  underwent  the  same 
experience  and  also  died.  The  surgeon,  a  very  able  and 
skilful  operator^  was  in  despair.  He  had  still  another 
patient  to  be  treated:  the  omission  of  the  operation  meant 
death,  and  its  performance  in  the  light  of  his  two  previ- 
ous experiences  seemed  likely  to  result  in  the  same  mel- 
ancholy end.  He  at  once  determined  to  prepare  this 
woman  for  her  operation  by  reducing  mental  activity  to 


48  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

its  lowest  terms  and  this  resulted  in  complete  success, 
the  patient's  pulse  falling,  while  she  was  on  the  operat- 
ing table,  to  84  beats.  In  this  instance  sedatives  were 
employed,  but  the  same  result  could  probably  have  been 
attained  by  moral  influence  and  suggestion.  The  means, 
however,  are  of  secondary  importance;  it  is  the  result 
which  counts. 

It  is,  however,  in  the  sphere  of  the  functional  neuroses 
that  suggestion  finds  its  legitimate  field.  Here  its  impor- 
tance is  the  greater,  because  in  these  disorders  the  be- 
neficent action  of  drugs  and  medicines  is  but  slight,  and 
what  power  they  possess  is  due  largely  to  their  sugges- 
tional  effect.  These  nervous  sufferers  with  their  insom- 
nias, thein  shifting  hysterical  pains,  their  phobias,  their 
hallucinations,  their  manias,  depressions,  and  harmful 
exaltations,  their  intense  irritability,  their  profound  weak- 
ness, their  moral  perversion,  their  morbid  feelings,  their 
bad  habits,  are  the  despair  of  the  ordinary  practitioner  and 
they  will  continue  to  t>e  such  until  the  physician  enlarges 
the  sphere  of  his  culture  and  qualifies  himself  to  treat  the 
whole  man.  There  is  no  class  of  patients  so  neglected 
and  I  may  say  no  class  of  patients  who  can  be  more  easily 
treated  than  many  of  these,  provided  the  method  be  correct 
and  be  sufficiently  elastic  and  individual.  In  almost  all 
such  cases  the  real  cause  of  the  disorder  is  moral  or  psy- 
chical. The  cause  of  the  disease  being  central,  it  is  useless 
or  next  to  useless  to  attack  it  at  the  circumference.  One 
may  remove  local  pain  by  local  treatment  only  to  experience 
the  mortification  of  having  the  pain  reappear  at  a  new 
point.  The  ordinary  sedatives  may  afford  a  necessary 
night's  sleep,  but  they  cannot  remove  insomnia,  on  the 


SUGGESTION  49 

contrary  they  are  antagonistic  to  natural  sleep.  Power- 
ful tonics  may  act  as  a  stimulant,  but  what  the  exhausted 
nerves  need  is  rest,  not  stimulation.  And  when  we  ap- 
proach the  moral  and  psychical  aspects  of  these  disorders 
we  see  more  clearly  the  futility  of  chemical  and  mechanical 
agencies.  What  drug  or  medicine,  electric  current,  bath 
or  system  of  exercise  can  remove  the  moral  effect  of  shock, 
dispel  melancholy  and  remorse,  uproot  destructive  habits, 
eradicate  fixed  ideas,  bring  peace  to  troubled  consciences, 
or  supply  a  motive  for  living  to  one  who  has  lost  such 
motive  and  with  it  all  desire  to  live?  The  plain  truth 
is,  moral  maladies  require  moral  treatment;  physicians 
apprehend  this,  and  usually  abstain  from  administering 
medicines  in  cases  where  they  are  likely  to  do  no  good. 
The  difficulty  is  that  on  account  of  their  ignorance  of 
psychological  methods  few  physicians  feel  themselves 
competent  to  undertake  such  treatment.  The  time  is 
coming,  however,  when  a  knowledge  of  physiological 
psychology  will  be  considered  as  necessary  to  the  art  of 
healing  as  a  knowledge  of  anatomy. 

In  saying  this  I  by  no  means  wish  to  ignore  the  value 
and  importance  of  many  subsidiary  aids  and  adjuncts, 
of  which  from  the  beginning  we  have  made  the  freest  use. 
Psychical  disorders  give  rise  to  innumerable  physical  dis- 
turbances, e.g.,  in  the  digestive  tract,  and  these  may  re- 
quire physical  and  local  treatment.  Even  if  the  effect  of 
electricity  or  massage  in  these  cases  is  largely  due  to  their 
influence  on  the  mind,  that  does  not  diminish  their  value, 
since  a  curative  suggestion  can  often  be  best  administered 
in  this  way.  Dr.  Weir  Mitchell,  who  is  the  teacher  of  us 
all,  has  proved  the  great  value  of  rest,  isolation,  and 


50  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

abundant  nourishment,  in  a  brilliant  series  of  cures  ex- 
tending over  a  long  term  of  years.  But  on  the  other  hand 
Dr.  Mitchell's  patients  owe  even  more  to  their  contact 
with  his  remarkable  personality,  as  is  proved  by  the  fact 
that  his  rest  cure,  valuable  as  it  is  in  itself,  in  other  hands 
fails  to  produce  the  astonishing  results  that  are  associated 
with  his  name. 

I  said  a  little  while  ago  that  the  active  agent  in  all 
so-called  moral  recoveries  is  faith.  Physicians,  whatever 
their  school  of  practice,  ought  to  recognize  this  principle 
and  pay  more  attention  to  their  moral  relations  with  their 
patients,  for  these  are  frequently  more  valuable  than 
their  prescriptions.  Dr.  A.  T.  Schofield  beautifully 
says,  "When  the  eye  of  the  patient  meets  the  eye 
of  the  physician  the  cure  begins  if  it  is  likely  to  take 
place."  Physicians  like  other  men  owe  their  success  in 
life  to  two  sources,  —  to  what  they  are  and  to  what  they 
know.  Of  these  the  latter  at  present  engrosses  almost 
their  whole  attention,  to  the  neglect  of  the  powers  of  their 
own  personality.  Many  things  are  taught  in  the  medical 
schools  which  at  present  have  absolutely  no  bearing 
upon  the  curing  of  disease,  while  principles  which  are  useful 
in  the  treatment  of  all  diseases,  and  indispensable  to  the 
cure  of  some,  are  totally  ignored.  Yet  any  physician 
learned  in  the  literature  of  his  profession  knows  how  con- 
stantly the  fashions  of  medicines  vary  and  how  few  are 
indicated  in  any  form  of  disease  with  infallible  certamty. 
Remedies  which  were  constantly  given  a  generation  ago 
are  seldom  heard  of  now.  When  they  were  frequently 
mentioned  and  prescribed  by  celebrated  men  they  worked 
many  cures.  Now  no  one  expects  much  of  them.  The 


SUGGESTION  51 

same  fate  will  befall  drugs  that  are  popular  to-day.  Only 
a  few  old  standbys  such  as  iron,  quinine,  opium,  and 
its  derivatives,  mercury  in  its  various  forms,  the  bromides 
and  iodides,  arsenic,  strychnia,  digitalis,  etc.,  maintain 
themselves  from  generation  to  generation.  Yet  we  ought 
not  to  ignore  the  psychical  value  of  medicine.  A  pre- 
scription recommended  by  a  trusted  physician  with  the 
assurance  that  it  will  accomplish  the  desired  result  acts 
as  a  powerful  suggestion.  This  is  the  cause  unques- 
tionably of  many  of  the  cures  effected  by  homeopathy 
and  especially  by  patent  medicines  which  are  compounds 
of  inert  or  even  deleterious  substances.  The  glowing 
advertisement  excites  the  patient's  imagination.  The 
marvelous  testimonials  bearing  witness  to  striking  cures 
inspire  faith  in  the  purchaser.  A  remedy  that  has  relieved 
so  many  others  will  surely  help  him,  and  it  not  infre- 
quently does  so.  When  these  remedies  are  analyzed 
their  physiological  potency  is  usually  seen  to  be  nil,  and 
without  their  psychical  appeal  they  would  probably  cure 
no  one.  The  same  result  is  often  obtained  in  anticipation 
of  the  expected  action  of  a  well-known  drug.  A  patient 
told  me  he  could  not  go  to  sleep  without  sulphonal.  I 
asked  him  how  soon  the  dose  affected  him  and  he  said 
in  five  to  ten  minutes.  As  sulphonal  dissolves  but  slowly 
it  was  plain  that  it  was  not  the  physiological  action  of 
the  drug  that  affected  him  but  his  expectation  of  its 
action.  I  therefore  requested  one  of  our  physicians  to 
dissolve  a  very  few  grains  of  sulphonal  in  a  bottle  of 
water,  which  I  gave  him  telling  him  to  take  only  one 
teaspoonful  in  case  he  could  not  sleep.  Finding  that  this 
succeeded  quite  as  well,  I  explained  to  the  patient  what 


5 2  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

I  had  done  and  easily  persuaded  him  to  discontinue  the 
use  of  sedatives  altogether. 

One  reason  why  American  physicians  are  so  slow  to 
avail  themselves  of  psychical  influence  in  combating 
disease  is  that  they  have  been  educated  in  a  too  narrowly 
materialistic  school  of  science  which  assumes  that  only 
material  objects  possess  reality  and  which  thinks  that  the 
mind  can  safely  be  ignored.  The  trend  of  science  to-day 
is  in  the  opposite  direction.  The  importance  of  the  mind 
as  a  chief  factor  in  health  and  disease  is  so  apparent  to  all 
persons  who  allow  themselves  to  be  influenced  by  the 
facts  that  it  cannot  longer  be  ignored.  The  next  great 
development  of  medicine  will  be  along  psychical  lines. 
The  way  is  already  prepared  in  the  disinclination  of 
educated  physicians  to  prescribe  drugs  and  in  the  dis- 
inclination of  educated  patients  to  take  them.  At  this 
crisis,  when  the  physician  realizes  what  a  powerful  and 
delicate  instrument  suggestion  places  in  his  hands,  he  will 
not  be  slow  to  avail  himself  of  it,  but  to  use  this  instru- 
ment successfully  he  must  have  faith  in  the  soul  and  its 
powers  and  he  must  cultivate  his  own  moral  nature. 
The  value  of  suggestion  lies  in  its  character  and  in  the 
character  of  the  man  who  makes  it.  Mere  routine 
phrases  and  parrot-like  repetitions  have  no  effect  on  the 
sick.  It  is  true,  psychology  is  as  yet  a  very  imperfect 
science,  and  it  may  be  that  the  question  how  the  mind 
affects  the  body  is  forever  insoluble  to  man.  But  on 
the  other  hand,  what  is  more  obscure  or  uncertain  than 
the  physiological  action  and  the  therapeutic  value  of  the 
great  mass  of  drugs  which  from  time  to  time  have  con- 
stituted our  materia  medica  ? 


SUGGESTION  53 

This  brings  me  to  the  discussion  of  faith  as  a  thera- 
peutic agent.  Although  in  every  form  of  disease  faith  in 
the  physician  and  in  the  means  he  employs  is  of  the 
utmost  importance,  yet  mere  blind  and  undirected  faith 
seldom  cures  the  sick.  I  have  had  abundant  opportunities 
to  test  this,  as  many  persons  come  to  me  full  of  faith  con- 
fidently expecting  that  a  single  interview,  one  prayer, 
or  the  placing  of  my  hand  on  the  affected  part,  will  remove 
a  malady  of  years'  standing.  This,  I  need  not  say,  seldom 
takes  place,  although  occasionally  it  does  occur.  A  woman, 
e.g.,  came  to  me  about  six  months  ago  and  told  me  that 
she  had  suffered  agonizing  pain  in  her  head  for  four  or 
five  days  in  the  week  for  a  period  of  fifty-five  years. 
Her  sufferings  were  so  great  that  when  her  daughter 
sickened  and  died  she  was  unable  to  care  for  her  or  even 
to  attend  the  funeral.  I  believed  her  affliction  to  be  a 
kind  of  reverberation  of  an  old  pain,  the  perpetuation  in 
memory  and  imagination  of  a  former  condition.  She 
was  suffering  acutely  at  the  time,  and  having  seated  her 
in  a  comfortable  position  and  having  made  her  very  quiet, 
I  placed  my  hands  on  her  head  and  assured  her  earnestly 
that  the  pain  was  diminishing,  that  it  was  in  fact  dis- 
appearing, and  that  in  ten  minutes  it  would  be  gone  and 
that  it  would  not  return.  The  suggestion  succeeded,  the 
pain  punctually  ceased,  and  the  patient  has  informed  me 
from  time  to  time  that  it  has  not  returned.  A  man  who 
was  not  able  to  visit  the  church  wrote  me  from  a  dis- 
tance that  he  and  his  wife  were  slaves  of  alcohol,  and 
begged  my  assistance.  I  wrote  him  that  he  could  break 
off  this  habit,  that  he  would  be  helped  in  his  struggle 
against  drink,  and  that  his  first  duty  when  restored  was 


54  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

to  help  his  wife  to  overcome  her  temptation.  After  six 
weeks  I  was  gratified  to  receive  a  letter  from  my  corre- 
spondent stating  that  since  he  had  heard  from  me  neither 
he  nor  his  wife  had  tasted  alcohol,  and  that  greatly 
to  their  astonishment  they  found  that  they  did  not 
desire  to  do  so.  I  could  give  other  striking  examples  of 
immediate  recovery,  but  I  admit  they  are  exceptional  and 
unusual.  In  our  practice  we  neither  look  for  nor  desire 
sudden  and  spectacular  cures,  partly  because  of  the 
publicity  which  attaches  to  them,  partly  on  account  of 
the  moral  effect  on  other  patients,  which  is  apt  to  be 
bad,  and  lastly  because  such  cures  are  seldom  per- 
manent. Although  we  try  to  awaken  faith  on  the  part  of 
our  patients,  we  do  not  desire  blind  or  fanatical  faith. 
We  lay  absolutely  no  claim  to  personal  power,  we  explain 
as  fully  as  possible  the  nature  of  the  means  we  employ, 
and  call  attention  to  the  limitations  of  such  methods,  and 
accept  as  patients  only  persons  suffering  from  functional 
disorders.  We  encourage  the  patients  to  acquaint  them- 
selves with  the  principles  involved,  by  maintaining  a  good 
library  of  standard  works  which  we  freely  lend  them. 
We  avoid  all  fetiches  and  material  adjuncts  as  means  of 
suggestion  and  relyonly  upon  moral,  spiritual,  and  rational 
means.  Faith  may  be  strong,  but  it  needs  accurate  and 
skilful  direction  in  order  to  be  useful  as  a  therapeutic 
agent;  hence  the  need  of  careful  diagnosis,  which  is  not 
merely  physical,  but  also  moral.  This  is  not  a  task 
which  every  shepherd  is  qualified  to  perform.  It  re- 
quires careful  observation  of  temperament,  capacity,  and 
idiosyncrasy  which  will  tax  the  resources  of  the  most 
gifted  man.  This  study  of  conscience,  this  analysis  of  a 


SUGGESTION  55 

life's  experience  in  order  to  discover  the  cause  of  the 
present  disturbance  and  to  trace  its  history,  requires  time, 
sympathy,  and  some  psychological  acuteness.  When  the 
cause  of  the  malady  has  been  determined,  it  requires  no 
less  thought  and  skill  to  devise  means  of  removing  it. 
Here  again  the  temperament,  the  culture  and  the  moral 
nature  of  the  patient  must  be  taken  into  account.  In 
this  work  there  is  no  such  thing  as  routine  method  or  a 
system  that  applies  to  all  cases.  Each  patient  presents  a 
new  problem  and  requires  individual  care.  Treatment 
which  would  be  beneficial  to  one  might  have  no  effect  or  a 
bad  effect  upon  another.  In  order  to  obtain  the  necessary 
co-operation  of  the  patient,  the  thought  presented  must 
be  such  as  the  patient's  mind  is  able  to  grasp,  and  it  must 
gain  his  approval,  otherwise  it  will  be  rejected.  Motives 
which  powerfully  affect  one  man  will  have  absolutely  no 
effect  upon  another.  Nor  is  it  necessary  merely  to  satisfy 
the  reason:  the  will  also  must  be  aroused,  possibly  from 
the  slumber  of  years.  The  task  we  are  attempting  is 
above  all  a  moral  undertaking.  In  the  majority  of  cases, 
before  the  patient  can  be  restored  to  health  it  is  necessary 
to  eradicate  powerful  habits,  to  supply  new  motives,  to 
supplant  the  most  intense  egotism  by  new  and  real  in- 
terest hi  others,  to  hew  out  new  paths  hi  the  brain,  some- 
times to  create  or  recreate  a  will.  This  requires  an  effort 
on  the  part  of  the  physician  greater  than  is  involved  in 
writing  a  prescription.  It  demands  moral  qualities  of 
the  highest  order,  intuition,  sympathy,  kindness  of  heart, 
and  an  absolutely  inexhaustible  patience.  Character  can 
be  imparted  only  by  those  who  possess  it.  But  on  the 
other  hand,  like  every  other  moral  victory  it  brings  its  own 


56  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

reward.  No  relations  with  men  and  women  are  so 
sacred  as  those  which  pertain  to  the  moral  life.  No 
physician  can  do  this  work  conscientiously  and  success- 
fully without  reaping  a  rich  reward  in  his  own  character. 

In  order  to  obtain  the  best  results  in  psychotherapeutics 
the  physician  and  the  patient  must  work  together.  There 
are  many  things  which  the  patient  can  do  for  himself 
which  will  be  discussed  in  the  chapter  on  auto-suggestion, 
and  there  are  many  things  which  he  cannot  do  by  himself, 
but  which  an  able  and  trusted  adviser  can  help  him  do. 
Sometimes  the  patient  can  carry  his  recovery  to  a  certain 
point,  but  he  cannot  advance  beyond  it.  The  cure 
tarries  and  he  becomes  discouraged.  Then  the  co-opera- 
tion of  another  personality  is  needed  and  with  this  help 
the  recovery  is  completed.  I  believe  this  was  what  Christ 
had  in  mind  when  he  said :  "  If  two  of  you  shall  agree  on 
earth  as  touching  anything  that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be 
done  for  them  by  my  Father  which  is  in  Heaven." l  At  all 
events  I  have  seen  some  startling  illustrations  of  the  truth 
of  this  word. 

In  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  faith  proposed  to  the 
patient,  honorable  men  will  differ  according  to  the  ends 
they  propose  to  themselves  and  according  to  their  per- 
sonal prepossessions.  No  right-minded  person  could 
desire  the  physician  to  demand  of  the  patient  a  faith 
which  he  himself  does  not  share.  It  has  frequently  been 
stated  that  it  is  the  intensity  of  faith  rather  than  its  charac- 
ter or  its  object  which  is  important  in  the  treatment  of 
disease,  or,  as  Dubois  puts  it,  "It  matters  little  what 
banner  we  raise  provided  we  hold  it  high."  There  is  a 

1  Matt,  xviii.  19. 


SUGGESTION  57 

sense  in  which  these  words  are  true.  It  is  no  doubt  the 
intensity  of  faith  which  is  valuable  as  a  therapeutic  agent. 
If  we  look  no  further  than  the  control  of  pain,  the  removal 
of  symptoms  or  even  the  cure  of  disease,  any  faith  which 
will  accomplish  these  results  is  sufficient  for  our  purpose. 
But  in  the  task  we  have  set  ourselves  we  do  look  further 
than  this.  Our  work  is  essentially  ethical  and  spiritual. 
Our  chief  interest  in  the  men  and  women  who  seek  our 
care  is  a  moral  and  religious  interest.  In  other  words, 
we  desire  not  merely  to  give  them  temporary  relief,  but 
to  do  them  permanent  good,  to  open  to  them  the  possi- 
bility of  a  new  life,  not  merely  to  restore  them  to  health 
but  to  give  them  motives  for  living.  If  we  look  at  this 
reconstruction  with  reference  to  life  as  a  whole  I  am  of  the 
opinion  that  it  does  make  some  difference  by  what  form 
of  faith  these  necessary  changes  are  effected.  I  know  a 
hospital  in  which  a  number  of  persons  have  been  cured 
by  two  tuning  forks.  It  is  suggested  to  the  patient 
that  these  are  powerful  magnets,  contact  with  which  will 
remove  pain  and  cure  many  forms  of  disease.  With  a 
certain  class  of  patients  this  works  well,  but  I  should 
expect  no  moral  regeneration,  no  new  and  higher  life  to 
proceed  from  such  a  source,  and  on  the  educated  who 
would  recognize  them,  such  objects  would  have  no  cura- 
tive effect  at  all.  When  a  man  has  become  profoundly 
discouraged  and  his  own  life  has  lost  its  spring  and 
motive  and  he  realizes  his  inability  to  help  himself, 
some  ideal  aid  he  must  have.  The  great  majority  of 
normally  constituted  men  and  women  find  or  may  find 
such  support  in  religion.  Others  find  help  in  a  noble 
philosophy,  in  art,  in  science,  in  music,  in  literature. 


58  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

Since  we  have  learned  more  of  the  nature  of  faith  we 
are  more  sure  than  ever  that  it  does  make  a  difference 
what  form  of  faith  a  man  lives  by.  There  are  forms 
of  faith  professed  and  practised  in  this  country  which 
are  almost  worse  than  disease.  On  the  whole  I  think 
I  would  rather  be  sick  than  crazy.  On  the  supposition 
that  the  character  of  faith  is  a  matter  of  indifference 
it  is  a  little  hard  to  see  why  physicians  should  object 
to  Christian  Science,  which  is  certainly  able  to  inspire 
faith  strong  as  the  strongest.  It  is  always  pleasant  to 
see  an  old  truth  in  a  new  light,  and  one  of  the  greatest 
pleasures  of  my  life  has  been  to  discover  how  exquisitely 
the  religion  of  Christ  is  adapted  to  the  sick,  especially  to 
moral  and  nervous  sufferers.  This  is  doubtless  because 
Jesus  lived  much  with  such  persons  and  had  them  con- 
stantly on  his  mind.  It  is  not  long  ago  that  religion  was 
regarded  as  a  predisposing  cause  of  melancholia,  hysteria, 
and  insanity  (Maudsley),  but  to-day  we  know  that  the 
type  of  character  created  by  Christ,  calm,  loving,  patient, 
unselfish,  fearless,  trusting,  is  the  type  best  able  to  resist 
every  form  of  nervous  disease  and  moral  evil  (Schofield). 
Therefore  it  is  that  we  offer  this  religion  to  those  who  seek 
our  aid,  seldom  without  success.  In  fact  the  willingness  of 
even  worldly-minded  and  apparently  irreligious  men  and 
women  to  accept  the  character  and  teachings  of  Christ  and 
to  live  by  them  has  been  one  of  the  happiest  experiences 
we  have  been  permitted  to  enjoy.  Again  and  again  have 
I  heard  a  man  who  had  not  thought  seriously  of  religion 
for  years  exclaim,  '"I  don't  know  whether  I  am  going 
to  recover  my  health,  and  the  curious  thing  is  I  don't 
care  now  nearly  as  much  as  I  did.  But  if  I  live  I  am 


SUGGESTION  59 

going  to  be  a  better  man  than  I  have  been  in  the  past." 
As  a  matter  of  fact  we  possess  in  our  religion  the  greatest 
of  all  therapeutic  agents,  if  only  we  deal  with  it  sincerely. 
The  thought  of  a  loving  God  within  us,  above  us  and  about 
us,  Who  desires  our  peace,  our  happiness  and  salvation, 
and  Who  has  greater  and  better  means  than  ours  to  re- 
move our  anguish  which  He  incessantly  employs,  is  a 
consolation  greater  than  our  greatest  need.  I  am  tempted 
to  quote  a  few  words  from  a  letter  which  was  written  by  a 
lady  who  sought  my  aid  in  an  intensely  nervous  condition 
caused  by  long-standing  insomnia  and  the  use  of  alcohol 
and  morphia,  and  which  reached  me  as  I  was  writing 
these  words.  "I  am  astonished  at  the  power  which  is 
doing  this  recreating  for  me,  because  I  am  perfectly  con- 
scious that  it  is  in  no  wise  my  will.  You  most  certainly 
set  free  some  potent  imprisoned  spring  of  action.  I  feel 
no  struggle,  only  a  simple  process  of  accomplishment." 

Returning  now  to  the  more  technical  aspects  of  sugges- 
tion, I  would  repeat  that  its  successful  employment  de- 
pends upon  a  certain  degree  of  dissociation  in  which  the 
command  or  assurance  dominates  our  mind  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  other  thoughts.  I  believe  this  is  as  true  of 
waking  suggestions  as  it  is  of  suggestions  given  hi  sleep. 
I  once  read  an  old  book  of  travels  and  voyages  in  which 
it  was  stated  that  John  and  Sebastian  Cabot  had  dis- 
covered several  fine  pearls  in  America  which  they  pre- 
sented to  the  King  of  England.  The  statement  made  no 
impression  on  my  mind  when  I  read  it,  but  in  the  night 
it  suddenly  occurred  to  me  that  if  the  Cabots  had  picked 
up  pearls  in  the  rivers  they  visited  four  hundred  years  ago, 
I  might  be  able  to  do  so  now  as  it  is  highly  probable  that 


60  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

no  one  had  disturbed  them  since.  The  following  summer 
I  sailed  along  the  coast  where  I  believed  the  Cabots  kid 
made  their  landfall  and  examined  the  beds  of  several 
rivers  which,  as  I  expected,  contained  large  unio  mussels, 
and  from  these  in  the  course  of  a  few  days  I  extracted 
more  than  three  hundred  good  pearls.  Hundreds  of  per- 
sons had  read  that  volume  without  perceiving  the  sig- 
nificance of  this  remark.  What  made  the  suggestion 
effective  in  my  case  was  strong  conviction  that  nothing 
stood  in  the  way  of  its  accomplishment.  So  when  Dubois 
assures  his  patient  that  a  symptom,  e.g.  a  tendency  to  con- 
stipation, no  longer  exists  or  is  about  to  be  removed, 
Dubois'  authority  as  a  physician,  the  positive  character 
of  the  assurance,  and  the  well-known  fact  that  he  has 
cured  hundreds  of  persons  by  the  same  means,  tend  to 
produce  a  state  of  dissociation  by  inhibiting  the  doubts 
and  misgivings  which  would  naturally  arise  were  such  a 
declaration  to  be  made  by  an  ordinary  person,  and  the 
promised  result  probably  follows.  This,  of  course,  is  pure 
suggestion  and  is  to  be  co-ordinated  with  a  long  series  of 
similar  phenomena.  Dubois,  probably  from  the  wish  to 
give  an  air  of  greater  originality  to  his  work,  calls  it  per- 
suasion, but  the  name  is  of  no  consequence.  Dubois' 
brilliant  recital  of  cures  effected  by  waking  suggestion  is 
undoubtedly  genuine,  and  we  are  in  a  position  to  sub- 
stantiate many  of  his  statements  and  to  add  to  his  list  of 
disorders  amenable  to  this  treatment.  Any  adequate 
treatment  of  suggestion  therefore  must  include  both  of  its 
phases,  sleeping  and  waking. 

I  would  remind  the  reader  at  once  that  this  problem, 
the  causal  connection  between  mind  and  body,  is  at  bottom 


SUGGESTION  61 

insoluble  to  man.  If,  as  Tyndall  said,1  "  the  passage  from 
the  physics  of  the  brain  to  the  corresponding  facts  of  con- 
sciousness is  unthinkable,  the  reverse  passage  from  the 
changes  of  consciousness  to  changes  of  our  physical 
organism  is  just  as  incomprehensible."  As  to  this  whole 
question,  Dubois  Reymond,  one  of  the  greatest  physiolo- 
gists of  the  nineteenth  century,  has  said,  "Ignoramus  et 
ignorabimus."  2  Yet  after  the  manner  of  all  science,  we 
may  leave  the  fundamental  problem  and  describe  the 
empirical  processes  as  far  as  we  are  able  to  follow  them. 
It  is  well  known  to-day  that  every  mental  change  is  pre- 
ceded and  followed  by  physical  changes.  A  sensation 
finds  its  way  to  the  brain,  it  emerges  as  a  thought  and  that 
thought  results  in  an  action  of  some  sort.  The  more 
powerful  its  centripetal  action,  the  more  powerful  the 
centrifugal  reaction.  A  man  receives  an  affront  or  an 
insult  which  evokes  an  outburst  of  passion.  His  mind  is 
shaken  with  angry  thought,  but  the  effect  does  not  end 
there.  He  trembles,  his  brow  darkens,  his  hand  clinches, 
his  features  become  pallid,  showing  the  convulsed  action 
of  the  heart.  Only  by  inhibition  of  the  higher  centers 
of  the  brain  is  his  fury  prevented  from  manifesting  itS2lf 
in  violent  deeds,  and  even  then  the  storm  does  not  die  away 
without  profoundly  depressing  his  muscular  and  nervous 
system.  What  was  the  cause  of  this  great  discharge 
of  nervous  energy?  Undoubtedly  the  moral  emotion 
awakened  by  the  affront  to  his  personality  which  might 
have  been  offered  without  the  least  physical  violence. 
The  older  physiologists  who  wished  to  eliminate  the  per- 

1  Lecture  delivered  in  1868,  pub.  in  Fragments  of  Science,  419. 
•  tJber  die  Crenzen  der  Naturerkeniniss.     7th  ed.,  1891,  pp.  40  ff. 


62  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

plexing  mental  factor  attempted  to  account  for  such 
phenomena  by  describing  them  as  pure  nervous  reflexes 
of  which  the  state  of  mind  was  the  effect  not  the  cause. 
A  Danish  philosopher  expresses  this  by  saying:1  "What 
the  mother  feels  who  mourns  for  her  dead  child  is  in  reality 
the  fatigue  and  languor  of  her  muscles,  the  coldness  of 
her  anasmic  skin,  the  inability  of  her  brain  to  think  clearly 
and  quickly.  All  this  becomes  evident  from  the  considera- 
tion of  the  cause  of  such  phenomena.  Take  away  from 
the  frightened  person  the  bodily  symptoms,  let  his  pulse 
beat  slowly,  his  gaze  be  firm,  his  color  healthy,  his  move- 
ments quick  and  certain,  his  thoughts  clear,  and  what  be- 
comes of  his  fright?"  Statements  to  this  effect  are  so 
obviously  perversions  of  facts  that  they  need  no  refutation, 
especially  as  to-day  by  simple  suggestion  we  can  produce 
the  same  physical  symptoms  of  which  the  mind  is  the  sole 
cause.  The  well-known  fact  is  that  the  mind  is  able  to 
control  to  a  marked  degree  the  functional  activity  of  our 
physical  organs. 

In  our  normal  life  the  phenomena  most  closely  resem- 
bling the  changes  effected  by  suggestion  are  the  results 
of  powerful  emotions  such  as  I  have  described.  The 
ordinary  operations  of  our  minds  have  rarely  any  appre- 
ciable influence  upon  our  physical  condition;  but  emotions 
such  as  fear,  anger,  despair,  hatred,  act  directly  upon  our 
nervous  and  muscular  mechanism,  profoundly  affect  our 
secretions  and  excretions  and  stamp  themselves  upon  the 
very  tissues  of  our  organism,  producing  in  fact  very  much 
the  same  conditions  that  are  produced  by  suggestion. 

•C.  Langc,  Uber  GemiUsbewegungen,  German  by  Karelia,  1887, 
quoted  by  Paulsen,  Introd.  to  Philos.,  p.  82. 


SUGGESTION  63 

The  moral  and  physiological  effect  of  these  phenomena 
is  yet  to  be  considered.  Here  I  would  call  attention  to 
the  fact  that  powerful  emotion  also  is  attended  by  marked 
dissociation.  It  occupies  the  mind  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  else  and  the  subject  is  frequently  insensible  to  pain 
and  to  the  dictates  of  self-preservation  and  reason.  Sol- 
diers carried  away  by  the  excitement  of  battle  often  fail 
to  feel  their  wounds  and  injuries;  in  the  edifying  auto- 
biography of  John  L.  Sullivan,  that  hero  states  that  he 
never  felt  a  blow  received  in  the  ring.  Two  bull  moose, 
elk,  or  caribou  while  fighting  will  allow  themselves  to  be 
approached  without  alarm,  and  during  the  mating  season 
they  lose  much  of  their  habitual  caution.  Standing  in  an 
open  marsh  I  have  called  up  a  wild  bull  moose  to  a  dis- 
tance of  a  hundred  feet  from  me,  and  I  only  ceased 
calling  for  fear  that  he  would  attack  me.  Persons  suffer- 
ing from  intense  grief  forget  to  eat  and  are  frequently 
insensible  of  weakness,  weariness,  and  pain.  Intense 
fear  both  in  animals  and  man  can  paralyze  limbs,  inhibit 
flight,  and  even  produce  the  rigidity  known  as  catalepsy. 
In  all  these  phenomena,  dissociation,  anaesthesia,  anal- 
gesia, paralysis,  catalepsy,  and  other  marked  somatic 
changes,  we  have  the  true  counterpart  of  the  phenomena 
produced  by  suggestion.  In  both  cases  we  may  well  refer 
such  changes  to  the  action  of  the  subconscious  mind. 

These  changes  certainly  take  place  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  the  nervous  system,  both  sympathetic  and 
central.  They  are  effected  either  by  the  direct  stimula- 
tion or  inhibition  of  the  action  of  the  glands  and  organs 
or  through  the  contraction  or  dilation  of  the  blood-vessels 
and  lymphatics  which  regulate  the  supply  of  nourishment 


64  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

afforded  each  part.  How  these  results  are  obtained 
passes  our  comprehension,  but  that  they  really  take  place 
there  can  no  longer  be  any  doubt.  When  I  say  to  a  pa- 
tient, your  pain  is  diminishing,  it  will  soon  cease,  I  am  no 
more  giving  scientific  directions  for  the  accomplishing  of 
this  result,  than  in  the  act  of  stretching  out  my  arm  I  am 
giving  the  power  that  effects  it  anatomical  and  physiolog- 
ical instructions  as  to  the  means  by  which  the  act  is  to  be 
performed.  All  that  is  necessary  is  to  put  the  suggestion 
before  the  mind  in  such  a  form  that  the  mind  will  accept 
it  and  act  on  it.  But  to  do  this  the  mind  must  believe  that 
the  act  proposed  to  it  is  possible  and  right.  Otherwise 
it  will  reject  the  suggestion  and  the  act  will  not  be  per- 
formed. For  this  cause  it  is  necessary  as  far  as  possible 
to  guard  against  counter-suggestions  of  reason,  paralyzing 
doubts,  the  persistence  of  old  habits,  and  all  those  moral 
and  intellectual  inhibitions  which  would  thwart  our  pur- 
pose and  render  our  attempt  futile.  Waking  suggestions 
therefore  must  be  brief,  and  it  is  frequently  better  to  give 
them  indirectly  as  hints  which  will  be  seized  by  the  mind, 
than  to  issue  them  as  commands.  The  more  one  can 
gain  the  faith  and  co-operation  of  the  patient,  the  better 
the  suggestion  will  succeed.  For  this  reason  sugges- 
tions conveyed  by  electrical  machines,  placebos  or  ideas 
contained  in  books  are  often  of  great  curative  value. 
The  reader  appropriates  the  thought  that  is  congenial  to 
him  and  acts  upon  it,  or  rather  it  acts  upon  him.  In  order 
to  avoid  the  danger  of  opposition  and  counter-suggestion 
some  practitioners  prefer  to  treat  the  patient  silently. 
If  the  nature  of  the  treatment  and  the  character  of  the  sug- 
gestions thus  silently  offered  are  fully  explained  to  the 


SUGGESTION  65 

patient  in  advance,  I  can  see  no  reason  why  such  sug- 
gestions should  not  be  effective,  but  to  imagine  that  there 
is  a  telepathic  bond  between  the  operator  and  every  sub- 
ject he  attempts  to  treat,  and  that  thoughts  arising  in  the 
consciousness  of  the  former  are  reflected  in  the  mind  of 
the  latter,  is,  in  the  light  of  our  present  knowledge,  a  base- 
less assumption.  In  cases  in  which  the  practitioner  is 
ignorant  of  the  disease  he  hopes  to  cure,  and  the  patient 
knows  not  the  means  by  which  he  is  treated,  cures  when 
they  take  place  must  be  credited  to  the  general  account 
of  faith. 

Again,  in  order  to  deepen  the  dissociation  and  to  guard 
against  adverse  influences  many  of  the  ablest  neurologists 
prefer  to  give  their  suggestions  through  the  medium  of 
hypnosis.  In  this  condition  the  action  of  the  higher 
cerebral  centers  which  may  cause  disturbance  is  more 
or  less  inhibited,  and  it  is  believed  by  many  that  sugges- 
tions so  given  are  addressed  directly  to  the  subconscious 
mind  and  that  they  will  be  more  vigorously  fulfilled. 
While  I  have  absolutely  no  prejudice  against  hypnotism 
in  safe  hands,  and  while  I  know  its  employment  to  be 
almost  necessary  in  certain  disorders,  I  doubt  very  much 
whether  it  is  necessary  or  peculiarly  beneficial  in  the 
treatment  of  the  ordinary  neuroses.  The  method  of  sug- 
gestion which  I  have  found  to  be  most  effective  in  dealing 
with  the  large  number  of  nervous  persons  who  come  to 
us  is  first  to  make  the  patient  calm  and  quiet.  This  in 
itself  is  a  decided  advantage,  especially  if  one  explains  to 
the  patient  how  to  attain  to  this  condition  at  home.  If 
a  very  nervous  person  who  is  suffering  from  acute  moral 
or  physical  agitation  can  become  profoundly  still  for  an 


66  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

hour,    the   benefit    is   frequently    noticeable.    The    bad 
habit  is  broken  at  least  for  a  time,  and  I  have  more  than 
once  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  recovery  begin  after  one 
or  two  such  treatments.    I  place  the  patient  in  a  com- 
fortable reclining  chair,  instruct  him  how  to  relax  his 
arms,  his  legs,  his  neck,  head  and  body,  so  that  there  shall 
be  no  nervous  tension  or  muscular  effort.     Then  standing 
behind  him  I  gently  stroke  his  forehead  and  temples,  which 
has  a  soothing  and  a  distracting  effect.     Without  attempt- 
ing to  induce  sleep  I  inform  him  that  his  body  is  resting 
and  that  his  mind  too  will  rest,  that  he  will  not  let  his 
thought  run  on  unchecked,  but  that  it  will  lazily  follow 
my  words,  and  that  when  I  make  a  useful  suggestion  to 
him  he  will  repeat  it  to  himself.     I  then  tell  him  that  all 
nervousness  is  passing  from  him,  that  everything  is  still 
within  him,  that  his  heart  is  beating  quietly  and  regularly 
and  that  he  is  breathing  gently  and  slowly.     I  suggest  to 
him  that  he  is  entering  into  peace,  that  his  mind  is  ab- 
stracted and  his  thoughts  are  becoming  vague  and  indis- 
tinct.   As  soon  as  I  see  that  these  suggestions  are  effective 
I  pass  to  the  curative  suggestions.     If  the  patient  is  suffer- 
ing pain  I  assure  him  that  the  pain  is  diminishing  and 
that  in  a  little  while  it  will  be  gone     If  I  am  treating  a 
patient  for  insomnia,  I  tell  him  that  he  will  sleep  soundly 
to-night,  that  he  will  feel  drowsy  and  fall  asleep  soon  after 
he  goes  to  bed  and  that  if  he  awakens  at  all  in  the  night 
he  will  make  a  few  suggestions  to  himself  and  immediately 
fall  asleep  again.    In  short  I  make  the  suggestions  as 
positively  and  simply  as  possible  and  under  these  con- 
ditions I  usually  find  it  advisable  to  repeat  them  more  than 
once.     During  this  treatment,  which  usually  lasts   from 


SUGGESTION  67 

fifteen  minutes  to  an  hour  according  to  the  difficulties  I 
encounter,  a  small  proportion  of  patients  will  iall  asleep 
and  take  a  short  nap,  as  some  persons  are  so  constituted 
that  they  will  sleep  anywhere  if  they  are  allowed  to  rest 
quietly.  I  have  never  observed,  however,  that  such  sleep 
had  any  particular  significance. 

I  ought  perhaps  to  add  that  I  personally  attach  a  re- 
ligious importance  to  this  state  of  mind.  When  our  minds 
are  hi  a  state  of  peace  and  our  hearts  open  and  receptive 
to  all  good  influence,  I  believe  that  the  Spirit  of  God  enters 
into  us  and  a  power  not  our  own  takes  posssession  of  us. 
Thus  I  am  tempted  to  explain  the  marked  moral  and 
physical  improvement  which  I  have  frequently  seen  follow 
such  brief  periods  of  complete  repose,  and  especially 
moral  changes  which  occur  with  very  little  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  patient.  When  a  man  who  has  struggled 
unsuccessfully  for  years  against  sexual  vice  or  alcoholism 
suddenly  finds  himself  free,  it  is  evident  that  one  of  two 
things  has  happened  to  him.  Either  the  old  temptation 
has  died  within  him,  or  a  new  spiritual  energy  has  entered 
into  him  which  lifts  him  above  its  power.  Again  and  again 
I  have  heard  men  and  women  who  had  undergone  this 
experience  express  surprise  that  it  had  taken  place  with 
so  little  effort  of  their  own  and,  like  the  woman  whose 
letter  I  have  cited,  they  say  this  change  has  not  taken 
place  through  their  own  effort  or  volition  but  through  the 
instrumentality  of  a  higher  power.  We  may  call  this 
suggestion,  but  I  can  hardly  believe  that  the  mere  assur- 
ance of  a  human  being  can  effect  moral  changes  so  stu- 
pendous and  to  the  unaided  victim  so  impossible.  A 
woman  who  had  been  bedridden  for  years  through  a  form 


68  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

of  hysterical  paralysis,  and  who  had  been  apparently  re- 
stored to  health  and  strength,  told  me  that  when  she  be- 
came profoundly  still  and  concentrated  her  mind  on  the 
thought  of  God's  presence  within  her,  she  frequently  felt 
such  a  sudden  increment  of  strength  that  it  frightened 
her.  In  this  connection  it  is  to  be  lemembered  how 
earnestly  Jesus  warned  men  against  injurious  agitation 
and  passion,  against  anger,  fear,  and  anxious  care,  and 
the  importance  which  He  attached  to  calm  and  peace. 
We  have  just  begun  to  fathom  His  motives,  but  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  in  His  colossal  task  of  the  moral  regenera- 
tion of  the  world  He  counted  on  a  higher  power  than  man's 
unaided  will.  To-day  we  recognize  the  universe  to  be  a 
great  storehouse  of  invisible  energy,  contact  with  which 
has  enormously  increased  the  potentiality  of  human  life. 
Is  it  probable  that  all  those  energies  are  mechanical? 
Does  not  the  whole  moral  and  religious  life  of  man  testify 
to  the  existence  of  unseen  spiritual  powers  which  are 
friendly  to  us?  Such  unquestionably  was  the  belief  of 
Christ.  It  is  natural  that  the  scientific  discovery  of  the 
mechanical  aspects  of  this  Power  should  come  first. 
("Howbeit  that  was  not  first  which  is  spiritual,  but  that 
which  is  natural  and  afterward  that  which  is  spiritual.") 
But  the  discovery  of  the  other  will  follow.  Many  per- 
fectly sane  persons  believe  that  we  are  on  the  brink  of 
that  discovery  to-day,  and  that  just  as  our  own  physical 
life  has  already  been  transformed  by  the  employment 
of  energies  which  have  always  existed  though  we  had 
not  recognized  them,  so  our  moral  and  spiritual  life  is 
destined  to  be  evermore  profoundly  transformed.  We 
shall  learn  the  secret  of  Christ's  personal  life.  Whatever 


SUGGESTION  69 

the  surprises  of  the  future,  faith  which  opens  our  heart 
to  the  universe,  love  through  which  we  escape  from  the 
narrow  limitations  of  self  into  the  life  of  humanity, 
and  the  possession  of  an  inward  peace  which  the  world 
cannot  take  from  us,  will  never  lose  their  ancient 
power. 

There  is  a  very  easy  and  rational  way  by  which  many 
childish  faults  and  nervous  weaknesses  can  be  removed, 
that  is  by  making  good  suggestions  to  our  children  while 
they  are  in  a  state  of  natural  sleep.  This  may  strike  some 
persons  with  surprise  and  it  raises  interesting  questions 
as  to  the  relations  of  natural  and  induced  sleep,  but  I 
have  employed  this  method  so  many  times  with  success 
that  I  feel  justified  in  mentioning  it.  By  this  means  I 
have  removed  childish  fears,  corrected  habits  of  mastur- 
bation, bed-wetting,  biting  the  nails  and  sleep-walking. 
I  have  checked  nocturnal  emissions  and  nervous  twitch- 
ings,  anger,  violence,  a  disposition  to  lie,  and  I  have  im- 
proved speech  in  two  stammering  children.  My  method  is 
to  address  the  sleeping  child  in  a  low  and  gentle  tone,  tell- 
ing it  that  I  am  about  to  speak  to  it  and  that  it  will  hear 
me,  but  that  my  words  will  not  disturb  it  nor  will  it 
awake.  Then  I  give  the  necessary  suggestions  in  simple 
words,  repeating  them  in  different  language  several 
times.  The  child  rarely  awakens  and  if  it  does  it  usu- 
ally drops  to  sleep  again  immediately.  I  have  had  the 
best  results  with  children  I  know  well  and  for  this  reason 
I  think  it  best  for  the  mother  or  some  other  loved  and 
trusted  person  to  make  the  suggestion  when  this  is  pos- 
sible. The  difficulty  in  employing  this  method  with 
grown  persons  is  that  they  usually  awake  when  spoken 


70  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

to.  With  some  children,  however,  one  can  carry  on  a 
conversation.  When  questioned  they  will  answer  very 
much  as  persons  do  in  hypnosis.  This  is  a  perfectly 
harmless  and,  in  competent  hands,  an  effective  means 
of  improving  certain  undesirable  habits  and  tendencies 
in  children. 

I  wish  now  to  attempt  to  remove  two  objections  to  the 
employment  of  suggestion  which  rest  on  misapprehension 
or  ignorance.  Many  persons  who  have  no  practical 
knowledge  of  these  matters  imagine  that  through  sugges- 
tion one  person  can  acquire  an  undue  power  over  the  will 
and  conscience  of  another.  This  they  think  will  lead  to 
dependence,  a  weakening  of  the  will  and  even  to  the 
undermining  of  character.  Other  persons  ask,  if  sugges- 
tion is  so  powerful  an  instrument  for  good,  why  may  it  not 
also  be  equally  powerful  for  evil?  At  the  present  time 
these  are  matters  of  exact  knowledge  and  observation,  and 
no  one  lacking  such  knowledge  ought  to  expose  himself  to 
merited  rebuke  by  passing  a  priori  judgments  on  them. 
It  is  true  these  misapprehensions  have  been  encouraged, 
if  not  created,  by  the  misleading  language  employed  by 
some  earlier  writers  on  hypnotism,  especially  those  of 
the  so-called  Salp£triere  School  of  Paris.  The  theories 
of  this  school,  as  Bramwell  says,  are  now  generally 
disregarded  by  those  practically  engaged  in  hypnotic 
work.  At  no  time  did  Charcot  and  his  colleagues  em- 
ploy hypnosis  extensively  for  therapeutic  purposes,  and 
most  of  their  views  and  statements  have  been  superseded 
or  corrected  by  later  investigators.  They  made  little  use 
of  suggestion,  but  believed  in  a  kind  of  necromantic  power 
inhering  in  material  objects.  Like  certain  quacks  in 


SUGGESTION  71 

America,  they  believed  that  medicines  are  able  to  exercise 
an  influence  within  sealed  tubes.  They  asserted  that 
symptoms  can  be  transferred  at  will  from  one  patient  to 
another  or  even  to  a  glass  of  water,1  that  a  sealed  tube  of 
laurel  water  when  presented  to  a  Jewish  prostitute  com- 
pelled her  to  adore  the  Virgin  Mary,  etc.,  aberrations 
which  on  the  part  of  scientific  men,  especially  after  the 
sober  and  rational  views  of  Braid,  seem  incredible.  In 
speaking  of  the  dozen  or  fifteen  hysterical  young  women 
on  whom  their  experiments  were  conducted,  they  allowed 
themselves  to  use  very  misleading  language,  calling  them 
"pure  automata,"  "things,"  "absolute  machines,"  etc. 
But  it  is  the  conviction  of  recognized  authorities  on 
this  subject  (Bernheim,  Forel,  Moll,  Bramwell,  Lloyd 
Tuckey,  etc.)  that  no  such  state  exists  and  that  Charcot 
and  his  disciples  were  deceived  in  this  and  other  beliefs. 
Bramwell  observes,  "Where  the  act  demanded  is  con- 
trary to  the  moral  sense,  it  is  usually  refused  by  the  normal 
subject,  and  invariably  by  the  hypnotized  one."  Moll, 
Forel,  and  Bramwell  have  so  ably  argued  the  case  of 
hypnotism  and  have  so  abundantly  proved  how  unreal 
are  its  supposed  "dangers"  in  experienced  and  con- 
scientious hands  that  it  is  only  necessary  to  refer  to  their 
works.2  In  my  own  experience  I  have  never  seen  any 
instance  of  weakening  of  the  will  or  of  enfeeblement  of 
personality  through  suggestion,  though  I  have  seen  in- 
numerable examples  of  the  strengthening  of  character 

1  See  e.g.  Ernest  Hart's  Hypnotism  and  Humbug. 

2  Moll,  Hypnotism:  Scribner,  N.  Y.,  3d  ed.,  1906.     Forel,  Hypnotism 
and  Psychotherapy:  Rebman,  N.  Y.,  5th  ed.,  1906.    Bramwell,  Hyp- 
notism: Alex.  Moring,  1906. 


73  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

and  liberation  of  the  will  from  bondage  and  evil  habit. 
It  ought  to  be  remembered  that  the  operator  has  no  power 
in  himself.  He  cannot  impose  his  will  upon  the  subject, 
whether  the  latter  be  sleeping  or  waking.  He  can  only 
evoke  powers  which  are  dormant  in  the  patient's  soul  or 
invoke  divine  powers  as  one  chooses  to  look  at  it.  If  he 
were  to  suggest  anything  contrary  to  the  subject's  moral 
sense,  his  suggestion  would  be  absolutely  rejected. 
Neither  is  there  any  danger  in  my  judgment  that  the 
patient  will  become  dependent  upon  the  physician  so 
that  his  presence  and  services  cannot  be  dispensed  with. 
In  this  respect  the  effect  of  suggestion  is  the  reverse  of 
that  of  the  drug  habit.  On  the  contrary,  as  the  moral 
nature  awakens  and  assumes  control,  it  becomes  inde- 
pendent and  needs  no  longer  external  support  and  assist- 
ance. The  danger  lies  in  this  direction  rather  than  in 
the  other,  as  the  patient  sometimes  believes  himself 
stronger  than  he  is  and  wishes  to  discontinue  the  treat- 
ment too  soon. 

The  second  objection  to  suggestion  both  waking  and 
sleeping  is  that  if  good  and  helpful  suggestions  will  be 
accepted  and  acted  on,  evil  and  harmful  suggestions  may 
also  be  imposed  on  passive  and  unresisting  minds.  It  is 
one  of  the  encouraging  facts  in  regard  to  human  nature 
that  this  natural  apprehension  has  proved  to  be  unfounded. 
I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  criminal  suggestions  might  not 
be  accepted  by  criminal  minds,  though  it  is  difficult  to 
see  why  this  should  be  attempted,  as  criminals  do  not  need 
the  aid  of  hypnotism  to  be  incited  to  crime.  Neither  do 
I  deny  that  crimes  may  be  perpetrated  on  the  deeply 
hypnotized,  just  as  they  may  be  perpetrated  on  the  sleep- 


SUGGESTION  73 

ing,  though  as  Forel  observes  such  acts  would  be  full  of 
danger  as  one  can  never  judge  absolutely  of  the  mental 
condition  of  the  hypnotized  nor  predict  what  memories 
they  may  bring  with  them  into  consciousness.  Nor  lastly 
do  I  deny  that  a  perversion  of  character  might  take  place 
in  hypnosis  through  the  repeated  efforts  of  a  cunning  and 
wicked  person,  though  the  corruptor  would  meet  with 
far  greater  difficulty  than  if  he  attacked  his  victim  in  his 
or  her  normal  consciousness.  But  I  do  assert  with  dis- 
tinctness and  confidence  that  no  virtuous  man  or  woman 
will  accept  a  suggestion  which  is  repugnant  to  his  or  her 
moral  nature.  On  the  contrary,  what  we  observe  in  hyp- 
nosis is  an  elevation  of  the  moral  faculties,  greater  refine- 
ment of  feeling,  a  higher  sense  of  truth  and  honor,  often 
a  delicacy  of  mind  which  the  waking  subject  does  not 
possess.  In  my  opinion  the  reason  for  this  is  that  the 
subconscious  mind,  which  I  believe  is  the  most  active  in 
suggestion,  is  purer  and  freer  from  evil  than  our  waking 
consciousness.  Every  once  in  a  while  the  story  of  crime 
committed  through  hypnotism  is  recorded  in  the  papers. 
I  have  investigated  several  of  these  and  have  found  either 
that  they  were  pure  fabrications  or  that  hypnotism'  was 
not  employed.  The  mere  fact  that  the  few  established 
instances  of  the  criminal  use  of  hypnotism,  the  Cynzski 
case,  the  murder  committed  by  the  half  insane  Gabriele 
Bompard,  the  beggar  Castellar  who  induced  a  poor  girl 
to  follow  him,  etc.,  have  been  cited  for  years  by  the  text- 
books shows  how  insignificant  is  the  number  of  crimes 
committed  through  hypnotism  in  comparison  with  those 
committed  every  day  by  other  means.  Von  Lilienthal, 
who  has  published  perhaps  the  best  statement  of  the 


74 


RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 


forensic  aspects  of  hypnotism,1  concludes  that  the  laws 
at  present  contain  sufficient  provisions  for  the  protection 
of  society  against  its  abuse.  Into  this  aspect  of  the  sub- 
ject I  shall  not  go  except  to  say  that  two  important  legal 
uses  of  hypnotism,  its  application  in  the  detection  of  crime 
and  in  the  reformation  of  the  criminal,  have  been  but  little 
employed  in  this  country.  The  latter  consideration  is  a 
very  important  one.  We  have  succeeded  so  well  with 
many  persons  of  criminal  tendencies  at  large  in  society 
that  it  would  be  well  worth  the  effort  to  apply  the  same 
methods  to  those  confined  in  prison.  The  abuse  of  hypno- 
tism is  certainly  attended  with  less  danger  than  the  abuse 
of  medicines.  Many  useful  drugs,  if  taken  in  too  large 
doses,  or  when  they  are  not  indicated,  are  dangerous 
poisons,  but  this  is  no  reason  why  they  should  not  be  pre- 
scribed in  proper  quantities  by  competent  physicians.  In 
fact  hardly  a  therapeutic  agent  can  be  cited,  not  even  the 
rest  cure,  which  in  unskilful  hands  may  not  produce 
harmful  results.*  In  this  country,  what  has  tended  to 
bring  hypnotism  into  disrepute  more  than  anything  else 
is  the  curious  indifference  of  public  opinion  which  has 
permitted  irresponsible  vagabonds  to  employ  it  in  exhibi- 
tions which  are  degrading  to  human  nature. 

A  great  deal  of  importance  has  been  attached  to  the 
fact  that  suggestions  of  imaginary  crimes  are  frequently 

1  Von  Lilienthal,  Hypnotism  in  its  Relation  to  Jurisprudence  in  the 
Journal  of  Collective  Legal  Science. 

1  Dr.  Mitchell  says:  "In  dealing  with  this  as  with  every  other  medical 
means,  it  is  well  to  recall  that  in  our  attempts  to  help  we  may  sometimes 
do  harm,  and  we  must  make  sure  that  in  causing  the  largest  share  of 
good  we  do  the  least  possible  evil.  The  one  goes  with  the  other  as  shadow 
with  light  and  to  no  therapeutic  measure  does  this  apply  more  surely 
than  to  the  use  of  rest."  —  Fat  and  Blood,  8th  ed.,  Phila.,  1907,  p.  73. 


SUGGESTION  75 

accepted  by  hypnotized  persons.  A  girl  is  commanded 
to  put  a  certain  piece  of  sugar  which  she  is  told  contains 
arsenic  into  her  mother's  tea,  and  she  obeys.  From  this 
it  is  argued  that  a  virtuous  young  woman  in  a  state  of 
hypnosis  does  not  scruple  to  commit  a  detestable  crime. 
The  weak  point  of  these  experiments  is  that  the  experi- 
menters forgot  to  ask  the  patients  of  their  opinion  as  to 
the  nature  of  the  act  they  are  performing.  Bramwell, 
however,  whose  discussion  of  the  subject  is  the  best  I  have 
seen,1  took  this  precaution.  He  suggested  to  his  patient, 
Miss  D.,  that  she  should  steal  a  watch  placed  conveniently 
for  the  purpose  on  the  table.  This  she  refused  to  do. 
He  asked  her  later  why  she  had  not  obeyed  his  suggestion, 
and  she  said,  "  Because  I  knew  it  would  be  wrong."  The 
same  patient  in  hypnosis  told  Dr.  Bramwell  that  his  sug- 
gestion of  stealing  the  watch  was  only  an  experiment,  but 
that  she  would  not  obey  it  because  she  would  not  do  what 
was  wrong  even  in  jest.  She  admitted,  however,  that  she 
would  put  a  lump  of  sugar  into  her  mother's  teacup  even 
if  Dr.  Bramwell  said  it  was  arsenic,  because  she  knew  it 
was  sugar  and  such  an  act  would  not  be  even  doing 
wrong  in  jest.  Bramwell  cites  a  number  of  instances2 
in  which  his  suggestions,  though  perfectly  innocent,  were 
rejected  because  in  some  way  they  offended  the  moral 
sense  of  the  subject,  e.g.,  the  case  of  a  young  woman  who 
refused  to  see  a  de'collete  photograph  of  herself,  who 
said:  "I  never  should  have  my  photograph  taken  in  such 
a  low-necked  dress,  and  did  not  wish  to  see  it,  or  describe 

1  Hypnotic  Theories  in  op.  cit. 
3  Hypnotism,  p.  330  ff. 


76  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

it  to  you,  as  the  idea  offended  me."  Of  course  the  kind 
of  suggestion  which  will  be  accepted  or  rejected  depends 
largely  upon  the  normal  individuality  of  the  subject,  but 
even  in  the  most  striking  examples  of  imaginary  crime, 
e.g.,  that  cited  by  Forel,  in  which  "an  old  and  very  sug- 
gestible man  discharged  two  blank  cartridges  at  Mr. 
Hoefclt,"  we  may  be  sure,  as  Forel  himself  admits,  that  the 
patient  was  well  aware  that  the  operator  would  not  ask 
him  to  commit  a  real  crime.  On  this  subject  Moll  says: 
"There  is  no  doubt  that  subjects  can  be  made  to  commit 
all  sorts  of  imaginary  crimes  in  one's  study,  but  these 
laboratory  experiments  prove  nothing,  because  some 
trace  of  consciousness  always  remains  to  tell  the  subject 
he  is  playing  a  comedy."1  Bramwell  sums  up  the  result 
of  twelve  years'  experiment  and  observation  in  these 
words:  "I  have  never  seen  a  suggestion  accepted  in 
hypnosis  which  would  have  been  refused  in  the  normal 
state.  I  have  observed  that  suggestion  could  be  resisted 
as  easily  in  the  lethargic  as  in  the  alert  stage.  I  have 
frequently  noticed  increased  refinement  in  hypnosis;  sub- 
jects have  refused  suggestions  which  they  would  have 
accepted  in  the  normal  state. 

"Examination  of  the  mental  condition  in  hypnosis  re- 
vealed the  fact  that  it  was  unimpaired." 

"Although  I  am  willing  to  admit  that  it  is  possible  that 
harm  may  be  done  through  the  mismanagement  of  hyp- 
notic cases,  I  have  personally  seen  no  evidence  of  this 
either  in  my  own  practice  or  in  that  of  others.  Further, 
I  have  never  seen  the  slightest  bad  effect  follow  carefully 
conducted  hypnotic  experiments."1  In  general  it  may  be 

« Hypnotism,  p.  371.  »  Op.  tit.,  p.  330;  op.  tit.,  p.  436. 


SUGGESTION  77 

said  that  while  virtuous  and  normal  persons  are  well 
protected  against  evil  suggestion,  the  defective  and  morally 
weak  may  be  injured  by  the  unscrupulous.  This  is  a 
subject  of  which  the  laws  will  have  to  take  cognizance. 
Far  more  important  to  us,  however,  is  the  suggestion  of  mob 
violence  conveyed  without  the  instrumentality  of  hypno- 
tism, by  which  the  nature  of  honorable  and  humane  men 
is  temporarily  transformed,  causing  them  to  commit 
barbarous  and  inhuman  deeds. 

I  pass  now  to  a  more  speculative  consideration  of  the 
moral  and  physical  changes  effected  by  suggestion.  The 
scope  of  this  work  precludes  a  discussion  of  the  innumer- 
able views  advanced  to  account  for  hypnotic  phenomena, 
and  this  is  less  necessary  as  a  full  and  admirable  discussion 
of  the  leading  theories  is  contained  in  Bramwell.1  The 
facts  to  be  accounted  for  are  of  the  most  varied  character 
and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  no  sufficiently  comprehensive  and 
exact  explanation  of  them  has  as  yet  been  given.  Indeed 
the  very  nature  of  so-called  hypnotic  sleep  has  not  yet  been 
determined,  but  this  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  when  we 
remember  our  ignorance  of  natural  sleep.  The  belief  of 
the  older  mesmerists  in  an  external  invisible  agent,  an 
odylic  force,  etc.,  need  not  detain  us.  The  purely  physi- 
cal theories,  such  as  Charcot's,  Heidenhain's,  and  Ernest 
Hart's,  may  also  be  rejected,  since  we  know  that  hypnosis 
can  be  induced  without  mechanical  stimulation,  that  the 
hypnotized  are  not  automata  capable  only  of  reflex  action, 
and  lastly  that  the  observed  physical  changes  take  place 
through  suggestion  and  not  as  the  result  of  mere  nerve 
stimulus.  Neither,  on  the  other  hand,  is  suggestion  in 
i  Op.  tit.,  273-424. 


;8  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

itself,  as  Bcrnhcim  seems  to  think,  the  sole  factor  to  be 
considered,  for,  as  Brarawell  says,  there  are  certain  con- 
ditions within  the  subject,  willingness  to  obey  and  the 
ability  to  do  so,  which  are  necessary  to  the  successful 
employment  of  suggestion.  Moreover,  the  state  of  hyp- 
nosis itself,  whether  it  be  induced  by  suggestion  or  by 
mechanical  stimulation,  presents  certain  problems  which 
must  be  reckoned  with. 

The  relation  of  hypnosis  to  natural  sleep  is  a  most  inter- 
esting question.  Bernheim  regards  the  two  states  as  prac- 
tically identical.  This  view  is  open  to  objection  on  the 
ground  that  hypnotized  persons  usually  preserve  a  degree 
of  intelligence  and  invariably  a  moral  sense  which  are  not 
present  in  normal  sleep  and  dreaming.  Yet  it  must 
be  admitted  that  the  conditions  to  which  one  is  sub- 
jected are  very  different.  The  sleeping  person  lies  in  a 
quiet,  dark  room  cut  off  as  far  as  possible  from  all  sense 
stimulation,  while  the  mind  of  the  hypnotized  subject  is 
invaded  by  the  suggestions  of  the  operator.  I  have  been 
hypnotized  several  times  for  intense  fatigue  when  I  was 
unable  to  obtain  natural  sleep,  and  after  the  suggestions 
had  been  given  I  was  allowed  to  sleep  for  several  hours. 
As  far  as  I  was  able  to  recall  my  sensations  they  differed 
decidedly  from  those  experienced  in  a  sound  nap  in  the 
daytime,  in  that,  although  profoundly  relaxed  and  unable 
to  move,  I  did  not  really  lose  consciousness.  On  one 
occasion  I  failed  to  awake  at  the  command  of  the  operator. 
I  heard  the  order  to  awake  plainly  enough  and  knew 
what  it  meant,  but  I  calculated  correctly  that  it  was  not 
necessary  for  me  to  awake  so  soon,  and  I  enjoyed  my  rest 
so  much  that  I  did  not  wish  to  be  disturbed.  Only  when 


SUGGESTION  79 

I  perceived  that  the  operator  was  about  to  dash  water  in 
my  face  could  I  make  the  necessary  effort.  My  experi- 
ments with  sleeping  children  lead  me  to  believe  that  there 
is  less  difference  between  induced  and  natural  sleep  than 
is  usually  supposed.  Of  course  it  may  be  said  that  my 
assurance  that  the  child  will  hear  me,  but  will  not  awake, 
causes  it  to  pass  from  natural  sleep  to  hypnosis.  In  view 
of  the  difficulties  others  have  met  in  effecting  this  transition 
this  seems  to  me  unlikely.  A  little  boy  of  my  acquaintance, 
now  about  nine  years  old,  talks  a  good  deal  in  his  sleep 
as  the  result  of  vivid  dreaming.  By  entering  into  the 
situation  presented  in  his  dream  it  is  often  possible  to 
engage  him  in  conversation  without  awakening  him.  New 
situations  can  be  suggested  to  him  which  he  will  accept 
and  develop  sometimes  in  a  very  lively  and  natural  man- 
ner. At  the  present  time  I  am  treating  a  woman  of  sixty- 
three  for  nervous  debility  and  melancholia  attended  with 
acute  insomnia.  I  began  by  visiting  her  in  the  afternoon, 
but  finding  that  my  suggestion  as  to  sleep  did  not  produce 
the  desired  effect  I  changed  the  hour  to  nine  in  the  evening 
and  treated  the  patient  after  she  had  gone  to  bed,  suggest- 
ing that  she  would  fall  asleep  at  once  and  sleep  all  night. 
This  has  succeeded  much  better  as  the  patient  usually 
falls  into  a  quiet  sleep  while  I  am  with  her  or  a  few  minutes 
afterward,  and  does  not  awake  until  morning  when  she 
finds  herself  much  refreshed.  What  I  wonder  is,  where 
hypnosis  if  it  exists  ceases  and  natural  sleep  begins. 

It  is  probable  that  the  majority  of  persons  who  are  not 
good  sleepers  put  themselves  to  sleep  by  suggestion,  either 
by  concentrating  their  minds  upon  the  thought  and  ex- 
pectation of  sleep  or  at  least  by  excluding  all  disturbing 


go  RELIGION  AND   MEDICINE 

and  exciting  thoughts.     Bramwell,  in  arguing  against  the 
identity  of  natural  sleep   and   hypnosis,   cites   Hirsch's 
objection  that  young  children  do  not  put  themselves  to 
sleep  in  this  way.    That  is  true,  their  mothers  and  nurses 
do  it  for  them.    They  divert  the  mind  and  render  the  in- 
fant slightly  dizzy  by  rocking  it.    They  croon  into  its  ears 
monotonously  repeated  lullabies  whose  sole  burden  is  the 
oncoming  of  sleep.    If  the  wakeful  child  is  old  enough 
to  understand  they  give  it  verbal  suggestion.     In  short, 
they  exhaust  the  methods  of  the  hypnotists  old  and  new. 
The  question  has  been  raised  whether  hypnosis  is  to 
be  regarded  as  sleep  at  all,  as  in  this  condition  conscious- 
ness persists.    In  reply  it  may  be  asked  whether  con- 
sciousness is  ever  totally  extinguished  in  natural  sleep. 
It  is  true  we  are  frequently  unaware  of  a  single  dream 
during  the  night,  but  that  may  be  due  to  a  more  vigorous 
amnesia  than  that  which  usually  obliterates  our  dreams  a 
few  moments  after  we  awake,  an  amnesia  which  can  also 
be  readily  effected  through  suggestion  in  the  deeper  phases 
of  hypnosis.     My  friend,  Dr.  Mumford  of  Boston,  has 
informed  me  of  extensive  experiments  on  this  subject 
which  were  once  made  in  the  Massachusetts  General 
Hospital  in  that  city.    When  patients  had  to  be  awakened 
in  the  usual  routine  at  night  they  were  immediately  asked 
about  their  dreams,  and  in  every  case  they  were  found 
to  be  dreaming.    I  think  it  very  doubtful  if  hypnotized 
subjects  ever  really  lose  consciousness  even  in  the  deeper 
stages  of  hypnosis.     In  my  own  experience  I  have  invari- 
ably retained  a  pretty  clear  perception  of  what  was  going 
on  around  me.     In  spite  of  the  operator's  command  that 
I  should  hear  nothing  but  his  voice,  I  have  heard  whispered 


SUGGESTION  81 

conversations,  the  ticking  of  a  clock,  etc.,  and  have  been 
able  to  study  my  own  organic  sensations.  In  fact  about 
the  only  indication  which  convinced  me  that  I  was  really 
influenced  was  the  fact  that  I  did  not  feel  a  pinprick, 
could  not  lift  my  eyelids  or  resist  commands  in  regard  to 
the  movement  of  my  limbs,  though  I  tried  to  do  so.  In 
this  my  experiences  tallied  closely  with  those  of  Professor 
Bleuler's,1  although  I  think  some  of  my  hypnoses  were 
deeper  than  those  he  describes.  I  have  asked  many  per- 
sons immediately  after  hypnosis  as  to  their  sensations 
and  they  have  almost  invariably  told  me  the  same  thing. 
In  fact  in  the  lighter  forms  of  hypnosis  it  is  difficult  to 
make  patients  believe  that  they  have  been  influenced  at 
all,  as  the  state  of  consciousness  is  so  different  from  the 
profound  sleep  they  had  anticipated.  Sometimes,  how- 
ever, they  are  surprised  to  discover  how  much  time  has 
elapsed.  The  only  exception  that  has  come  under  my 
personal  observation  is  in  cases  of  deep  lethargy  into  which 
a  few  persons  pass  as  soon  as  they  are  directed  to  go  to 
sleep.  While  in  this  condition  such  persons  show  little  if 
any  mental  activity.  It  is  usually  impossible  to  elicit 
any  rational  response  from  them,  and  they  frequently 
fail  to  hear  or  at  least  to  obey  the  simplest  suggestions. 
I  believe  this  condition  to  be  pathological  and  not  due  to 
suggestion,  as  in  several  instances  I  have  seen  the  same  per- 
sons pass  into  it  when  merely  seated  in  a  comfortable  posi- 
tion, without  any  suggestion  of  sleep  being  given  to  them. 

Comparing  the  most  striking  phenomena  of  natural 
and  induced  sleep  one  observes  in  both  the  same  inertia 
and  relaxation,  fixation  or  closing  of  the  eyes,  reduced 

»  Forel,  Hypnotism  and  Psychotherapy,  chap.  xv. 


8a  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

action  of  the  heart,  measured  and  regular  breathing, 
which,  however,  can  be  disturbed  by  both  dreams  and 
suggestions.  Whether  in  hypnosis  one  finds  the  cerebral 
anemia  supposed  to  be  present  in  natural  sleep  is  ques- 
tioned by  Heidenhain *  on  the  grounds  that  hypnosis  has 
followed  inhalation  of  nitrate  of  amyl  which  causes 
hyperemia  of  the  brain,  and  because  no  change  appeared 
in  vessels  at  the  back  of  the  eye  during  hypnosis.  In 
dream  consciousness  we  have  a  condition  analogous  to 
the  thoughts,  images,  and  hallucinations  which  can  be 
evoked  in  hypnosis  by  suggestion.  Sully a  objects  to  this 
that  the  greater  part  of  our  dream  material  in  nightly 
sleep  comes  from  within  the  organism,  not  from  without 
as  in  hypnosis,  that  the  natural  dream  is  more  complex 
and  varied  than  the  hypnotic,  and  that  the  hypnotical 
subject  tries  to  translate  his  hallucinations  into  actions  in  a 
manner  that  finds  no  parallel  in  natural  sleep.  All  these 
statements  may  be  questioned.  Dreams,  for  example, 
are  believed  to  arise  from  two  sources,  from  stimulation 
of  the  external  senses,  and  from  organic  feeling  or  central 
action  causing  or  continuing  an  association  of  ideas.  Of 
these  the  former  class  of  dreams  occur  far  more  frequently 
than  the  latter.  Maury,  Preyer,  and  others  have  shown 
by  classical  experiments  how  readily  the  dream  conscious- 
ness follows  sense  stimulation.  A  bottle  of  eau  de  cologne 
held  to  Maury's  nostrils  caused  him  to  dream  that  he  was 
in  Farina's  shop  in  Cairo.  Sprinkling  of  his  face  caused 
Leibner  to  dream  of  a  shower,  etc.  Maury,  moreover, 
relates  a  number  of  things  which  returned  to  his  memory 

1  Cited  by  Bramwell,  op.  tit.,  p.  306. 
•  Cited  by  Bramwell,  p.  310. 


SUGGESTION  83 

in  dreams,  though  when  awake  he  knew  nothing  of  them. 
Exactly  the  same  phenomena  occur  in  hypnosis  without 
the  intervention  of  spoken  suggestion.  Moll's  experiments 
in  this  field  are  interesting.1  He  hypnotized  a  person  and 
blew  with  a  pair  of  bellows  without  speaking.  The  sub- 
ject translated  this  sound  as  the  exhaust  of  a  steam  engine, 
and  by  an  association  of  ideas  dreamt  that  he  saw  a  train 
and  the  railroad  station  at  Schonberg.  Moll  drummed 
with  his  fingers  on  the  table  and  the  subject  dreamt  of 
military  music,  a  parade,  etc.1  Thus  two  of  Sully's  state- 
ments fall  to  the  ground.  Most  dreams  proceed  from 
external  stimulation,  and,  as  Miss  Calkins  of  Wellesley 
has  shown,  through  the  ear  rather  than  through  the  eye 
as  in  hypnosis.  Dreams  in  hypnosis  may  be  as  complex 
as  ordinary  dreams  of  normal  sleep.  Neither  is  it  strictly 
true  to  say  that  the  normal  dreamer  shows  no  disposition 
to  translate  his  hallucinations  into  actions.  Somnam- 
bulists it  is  well  known  execute  difficult  and  dangerous 
feats  which  they  would  not  dare  to  undertake  or  could 
not  execute  in  their  waking  moments.  Nervous  persons 
who  never  walk  in  their  sleep  frequently  act  out  their 
dreams  by  laughing,  weeping,  and  gesticulating.  If  the 
covering  is  removed  they  will  draw  it  on  again.  If  a  fly 
or  mosquito  alights  on  them  they  will  brush  it  off  again. 
I  have  seen  my  little  boy  strike  out  vigorously  with  his 
fists  when  dreaming  of  fighting.  Though  not  a  good 
rider  I  have  slept  soundly  on  horseback  and  for  more  than 
two  hours  at  a  time  while  the  pack  train  was  moving 
over  rough  country  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  only  awak- 
ing when  my  horse  suddenly  dropped  his  forefeet  down  a 

lO.  tit.   211  ff. 


84  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

declivity.  Forel1  describes  in  a  very  interesting  manner 
his  experiments  with  a  dormouse  sunk  so  deep  in  lethargic 
sleep  that  it  could  not  be  awakened.  Forel  placed  the 
little  animal  on  the  top  branch  of  a  small  fir  tree,  and 
although  asleep  the  contact  of  the  sole  of  its  foot  with  the 
branch  caused  it  to  cling  to  the  branch  with  its  claws. 
As  it  sank  into  a  deeper  sleep  the  muscles  of  the  clinging 
foot  gradually  relaxed  until  the  dormouse  seemed  about 
to  fall.  Then,  however,  its  nervous  system  was  pervaded 
by  a  sort  of  instinctive  flash  and  its  other  foot  seized  the 
next  lower  branch  when  the  same  scene  was  repeated, 
the  dormouse  going  profoundly  to  sleep  again  and  saving 
itself  only  when  just  about  to  fall.  It  slowly  lowered 
itself  from  branch  to  branch  until  it  reached  the  floor  of 
the  cage,  when  it  continued  to  slumber.  This  experiment 
was  repeated  several  times  on  two  dormice  with  the  same 
result;  neither  fell  and  neither  awoke. 

Thus  it  appears  that  hypnosis  and  natural  sleep  resemble 
each  other  in  their  physical  phenomena  and  in  their 
dream  consciousness  more  closely  than  most  writers  are 
disposed  to  admit.  Their  most  fundamental  difference 
consists  in  the  preservation  and  even  the  heightening  of 
moral  consciousness  in  hypnosis,  and  in  a  capacity  for 
logical  thought  which  dreams  do  not  possess.  Both 
these  peculiarities  are  of  great  interest.  There  are  few 
more  curious  aspects  of  human  nature  than  the  moral 
character  of  our  dreams.  No  one  apparently  is  protected 
against  these  strange  metamorphoses  of  character  which 
cause  us  in  our  sleep  to  perform  acts  cheerfully  and  with- 
out remorse  which  we  shudder  to  think  of  when  we  are 

1  Forel,  op,  cit.,  chap.  xiv. 


SUGGESTION  85 

awake.  Our  dream  consciousness  is  not  controlled  by 
moral  judgments,  in  our  dreams  we  lose  for  the  most  part 
our  sense  of  right  and  wrong.  A  trifling  circumstance 
affects  us  prodigiously  while  the  commission  of  a  crime 
seems  to  us  quite  natural.  In  hypnosis,  however,  we 
see  the  very  reverse  of  this.  The  hypnotized  person  not 
only  preserves  his  mental  rectitude,  but  his  sense  of  right 
is  heightened,  his  moral  faculties  are  more  sensitive,  his 
delicacy  and  refinement  of  feeling  are  increased  and  he 
will  frequently  refuse  suggestions  which  waking  he  would 
accept  without  scruple.  Yet  we  see  an  interesting  analogy 
to  the  moral  character  of  our  dream  consciousness  in  the 
willingness  of  many  hypnotized  subjects  to  commit 
imaginary  crimes.  This  moral  apathy,  I  believe,  proceeds 
in  both  cases  from  the  same  source.  We  are  warned  by 
an  inward  sense  of  the  utter  unreality  of  the  whole  per- 
formance. This  would  not  apply  to  immoral  acts  actually 
performed  by  somnambulists,  but  these  are  pathological 
in  their  nature,  and  must  either  be  referred  to  the  per- 
verted waking  consciousness  or  regarded  as  a  moral 
degeneration  resulting  from  the  causes  which  produce 
this  condition. 

The  intellectual  activity  of  our  dream  consciousness  is 
also  marked  by  certain  striking  characteristics,  most 
noticeable  of  which  is  the  absence  of  logical  consistency. 
In  our  dreams  we  accept  without  suspicion  the  most  im- 
probable situations.  We  pass  from  one  scene  to  another 
without  sense  of  incongruity  or  inconsequence.  This  is 
probably  due  to  the  fortuitous  stimuli  which  find  their 
way  to  the  passive  and  sleeping  brain,  awakening  now 
one  and  now  another  association  center,  which  are  unco- 


86  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

ordinatcd  by  attention.  We  have  seen  that  the  same 
conditions  can  be  produced  in  hypnosis  through  the 
stimulation  of  the  external  sense.  In  spoken  suggestion, 
however,  the  suggestion  claims  the  attention  of  the  sub- 
ject, steadies  his  thought  and  gives  it  a  purposive  and 
logical  character  which  dreams  seldom  possess.  I  would 
call  attention,  however,  to  the  fact  that  apart  from  our 
dreams  a  logical  and  purposeful  mental  activity  of  a  very 
high  order  frequently  occurs  during  sleep,  resulting  in  the 
solution  of  problems,  the  composition  of  poems  (Voltaire 
and  Coleridge)  and  the  working  out  of  many  valuable 
ideas.  These  trains  of  thought  seldom  if  ever  emerge 
as  dreams.  They  are  of  a  more  permanent  fabric  than 
the  stuff  which  dreams  are  made  of,  and  they  are  doubtless 
to  be  referred  to  the  action  of  the  subconscious  mind. 

As  the  field  of  hypnotic  experimentation  has  broadened, 
its  phenomena  have  become  richer  and  more  complex, 
but  their  very  richness  and  complexity  point  more  inevi- 
tably to  the  one  cause  which  is  sufficient  to  account  for 
them.  We  have  to  consider  not  merely  the  somatic 
changes  and  the  dissociations  of  personality  which  can  be 
produced  by  hysteria,  but  the  elevation  of  moral  charac- 
ter, the  improvement  of  certain  intellectual  processes, 
abnormal  appreciation  of  the  lapse  of  time,  recollection 
of  forgotten  events,  the  overthrow  of  old  and  powerful 
habits  and  the  formation  of  new  ones,  the  cessation  of 
pain,  and  the  positive  removal  of  innumerable  functional 
disorders.  It  is  obvious  that  effects  of  this  character 
point  to  a  psychical  cause,  in  fact  to  a  mind  that  possesses 
qualities  moral  and  intellectual.  It  is  equally  evident 
that  this  mind  functions  otherwise  than  our  ordinary 


SUGGESTION  87 

waking  consciousness,  for  not  only  are  its  activities  un- 
attended by  a  sense  of  effort  and  conscious  attention 
which  characterizes  the  latter,  but  it  operates  in  a  field 
whither  consciousness  cannot  follow  it,  attaining  its 
results  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  sympathetic 
nervous  system,  the  unstriped  muscles,  vaso-motors, 
glands,  etc.,  which  lie  outside  the  sphere  of  consciousness 
and  over  which  conscious  volition  has  no  control.  More- 
over, it  is  to  be  remembered  that  these  phenomena  take 
place  not  as  the  result  of  mechanical  nerve  stimulation, 
but  by  suggestion.  All  this  points  in  the  same  direction 
as  the  facts  already  recorded,  to  a  subconscious  activity 
which  is  essentially  moral,  but  which  controls  our  physical 
functions  to  a  far  greater  extent  than  our  consciousness. 
This  is  the  only  hypothesis  which  is  sufficient  to  account 
for  the  facts,  but  in  accepting  it  we  by  no  means  re- 
ject all  physiological  theories  as  to  the  manner  in  which 
the  subconscious  mind  functions.  Bramwell,1  for  ex- 
ample, ridicules  Boris  Sidis'  ingenious  theory  of  disso- 
ciation through  the  contraction  of  the  minute  fibers  of 
the  nerve  cells,  on  the  ground  that  the  facts  to  be  ex- 
plained are  increased  volition,  memory,  intelligence,  etc. 
Yet,  granting  this,  it  is  certain  that  dissociation  takes 
place  in  hypnosis,  and  Sidis'  explanation  of  the  physical 
concomitant  of  this  condition,  the  isolation  of  associa- 
tion centers,  may  well  be  correct.  Frederic  Myers  *  and 

» Op.  cit.  305. 

8  Human  Personality  in  the  Light  of  Hypnotic  Suggestion.  Proceed- 
ings of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  vol.  iv.  The  Subliminal  Con- 
sciousness, ibid,  vii,  p.  298.  vol.  ix,  pp.  3,  26.  The  Subliminal  Selft 
vol.  xi,  p.  33  f. 


88  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

Delboeuf  '  have  written  with  their  usual  brilliancy  and  per- 
spicacity upon  the  possible  origin  of  our  subjective  con- 
sciousness. Delboeuf  suggests  that  in  lower  forms  of  life 
the  animal  was  just  as  conscious  of  what  was  taking  place 
in  its  interior  as  of  what  was  happening  at  its  periphery. 
With  the  progress  of  development,  however,  its  attention 
would  be  directed  more  or  less  exclusively,  on  the  one  hand 
to  the  organ  which  placed  it  in  direct  relationship  with  the 
external  world,  and  on  the  other  to  the  means  of  attack 
or  defense  which  it  learned  to  use  from  day  to  day  with 
greater  certainty  and  vigor.  At  the  same  time  the  cares 
of  the  interior  would  be  got  rid  of  more  and  more  com- 
pletely, and  would  be  confided  to  a  servant  who  had  been 
trained  to  look  after  them,  and  whose  zeal  could  be 
depended  upon.  In  a  highly  developed  animal  such  as 
man,  the  importance  of  conscious  life  distracted  the  atten- 
tion from  the  phenomena  of  vegetative  life;  the  continual 
obligation  to  provide  for  the  necessities  of  existence  ab- 
sorbed the  will,  while  the  mechanical  regularity  with  which 
internal  organs  acted  rendered  conscious  attention  re- 
garding them  unnecessary.  The  care  of  the  vegetative 
life  had  been  handed  over  by  the  will  and  nervous  mechan- 
ism which  had  learned  to  regulate  themselves,  and  which 
in  general  fulfilled  their  task  to  perfection.  Sometimes 
the  machine  went  wrong,  and  intervention  became  de- 
sirable. The  power  which  formerly  regulated  it  had,  how- 
ever, dropped  out  of  the  normal  consciousness,  and  if  we 
desire  to  find  a  substitute  for  it  we  must  turn  to  hypno- 
tism. In  the  hypnotic  state  the  mind  was  in  part  drawn 

1  De  Variginc  des  e/els  curatifs  Fhypnotisme.     £tude  de  physiologic 
experimental*.    Paris,  1887. 


SUGGESTION  89 

aside  from  the  life  of  relation  while  at  the  same  time  it 
preserved  its  activity  and  power.  Voluntary  attention 
could  be  abstracted  from  the  outer  world  and  directed 
with  full  force  upon  a  single  point,  and  thus  the  hypnotic 
subconsciousness  was  able  to  put  in  motion  machinery 
which  the  normal  consciousness  had  lost  sight  of  and  had 
ceased  to  regulate.  If  a  contrary  opinion  had  till  now 
prevailed,  this  is  because  observation  has  been  exclu- 
sively directed  to  the  normal  exercise  of  the  will.  The 
will,  however,  in  the  hypnotic  state  can  regulate  move- 
ments which  have  become  irregular,  and  assist  in  the 
repair  of  organic  injury.  In  a  word,  hypnotism  does  not 
depress  but  exalts  the  will  by  permitting  it  to  concentrate 
itself  upon  the  point  where  the  disorder  is  threatened.1 

Myers  suggests  that  the  stream  of  consciousness  in 
which  we  live  may  not  be  our  only  one.  Possibly  our 
habitual  consciousness  may  be  a  mere  selection  from  a 
multitude  of  thoughts  and  sensations.  The  self  below 
the  threshold  of  ordinary  consciousness  Myers  terms  the 
subliminal  consciousness,  and  the  empirical  self  of  com- 
mon experience  the  supraliminal.  He  holds  that  sublimi- 
nal consciousness  and  memory  possess  a  far  wider  range 
of  physiological  and  psychical  activity  than  the  supra- 
liminal. The  latter  is  limited  by  the  need  of  concen- 
trating itself  on  recollections  useful  in  the  struggle  for 
existence,  while  the  former  includes  much  that  is  too  rudi- 
mentary to  be  retained  in  the  supraliminal  memory  of  an 
organism  so  advanced  as  man's.  The  recollection  of 
processes  now  performed  automatically,  and  needing  no 

1  Slightly  abridged  from  BramwelFs  statement  of  Delbceuf  s  views, 
op.  cit.,  pp.  568-9. 


90  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

supervision,  passed  out  of  the  supraliminal  memory  but 
might  be  retained  by  the  subliminal.  The  subliminal  or 
hypnotic  self  can  exercise  over  the  nervous,  vaso-motor 
and  circulatory  systems  a  degree  of  control  unparalleled 
in  waking  life. 

Further,  Myers  suggests  that  the  spectrum  of  conscious- 
ness as  he  calls  it  is  indefinitely  extended  at  both  ends  in 
the  subliminal  self.  Beyond  its  supraliminal  physiologi- 
cal limit  lies  a  vast  number  of  complex  processes  belong- 
ing to  the  body's  nutrition  and  well-being.  These  our 
remote  ancestors  may  have  been  able  to  modify  at  will, 
but  with  us  they  seem  to  be  withdrawn  from  the  field  of 
volition.  If  we  wish  to  modify  them  we  employ  drugs 
and  medicines.  At  the  superior  or  psychical  end  lies  an 
unknown  mass  of  impressions  which  the  supraliminal 
consciousness  is  unable  to  receive  directly  and  which  it 
must  apprehend  through  messages  from  the  subliminal 
consciousness.  Myers  arranged  hypnotic  phenomena  in 
three  grand  divisions,  i.  The  great  dissociative  triumph 
of  hypnotism  in  the  inhibition  of  pain  under  conditions 
of  nerve  and  tissue  with  which  it  is  otherwise  inevitably 
connected.  2.  The  associative  or  synthetic  triumphs  of 
hypnotism  in  the  production  and  control  of  organic 
processes  which  no  effort  of  normal  consciousness  can 
effect.  3.  The  intellectual  and  moral  achievements  of 
hypnotism  in  the  removal  of  physical  cravings  for  alcohol, 
morphia,  etc.,  and  the  eradication  of  destructive  habits 
and  tendencies.  This  is  believed  to  be  effected  through 
the  paralysis  of  the  lower  appetitive  centers  by  hypnotism 
and  the  exaltation  of  the  will.1  These  views  are  im- 

1  Abridged  from  BramwelJ's  statement,  op.  cit.,  pp.  358  ff. 


SUGGESTION  91 

portant  because  they  have  contributed  largely  to  the 
development  of  the  doctrine  of  the  subconscious  mind. 

The  chief  criticism  I  should  make  of  Myers'  and  Del- 
bceuf's  illuminating  theories  is  that  they  identify  the  sub- 
conscious mind  too  closely  with  the  phenomena  of 
hypnosis.  It  is  true  that  in  the  hypnotic  state  the  dissocia- 
tion of  the  subconscious  mind  from  consciousness  is  most 
complete  and  its  activity  most  striking,  but  we  should 
not  forget  how  large  a  part  is  played  by  the  subconscious 
mind  in  our  normal  lives  and  without  the  intervention  of 
hypnosis.  It  is  certain,  e.g.,  that  far  more  diseases  have 
been  cured  by  the  emotional  effect  of  strong  faith  and 
expectation  than  have  been  cured  by  hypnotism.  In- 
tense preoccupation  or  excitement  can  render  one  as 
insensible  to  fatigue  and  pain  as  hypnotic  suggestion. 
Innumerable  events  of  our  past  lives  are  flashed  on  us  by 
subconscious  memory  without  external  aid.  Permanent 
pathological  dissociation  certainly  occurs,  and  with  the 
greatest  achievements  of  the  subconscious  mind,  the  in- 
spirational creations  of  genius,  hypnotism  has  nothing 
to  do.  I  mention  these  facts  because  it  would  be  an  error 
belittling  to  our  subject  to  identify  the  subconscious  mind 
with  its  hypnotic  activity,  as  Charcot  identifies  hypnosis 
with  hysteria. 

Myers'  and  Delbceuf's  suggestion  that  the  physical 
functions  now  regulated  by  the  subconscious  mind  were 
perhaps  originally  within  the  field  of  consciousness  and 
under  the  control  of  the  will  may  be  true.  At  all  events 
conscious  emotional  states  still  possess  somewhat  the  same 
power.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  dissociation  which 
inhibits  counter-suggestion  and  concentrates  the  whole 


92  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

power  of  the  will  upon  the  act  to  be  performed  is  an 
important  factor  in  all  curative  suggestions.  Bramwell 
questions  this  on  account  of  the  undirninished  intelligence 
of  hypnotized  subjects,  but  it  is  only  necessary  to  remember 
the  gross  hallucinations  to  which  they  are  subject  to  per- 
ceive how  limited  the  sphere  of  their  mentality  is  and  how 
incapable  such  subjects  are  of  comparing  and  analyzing 
their  sensations.  The  rapid  changes  in  the  coloration 
of  fishes  to  harmonize  with  their  environment  might  be 
cited  in  support  of  Myers'  theory.  This  may  be  regarded 
as  a  conscious  act  in  so  far  as  it  is  effected  through  vision. 
I  would  also  call  attention  to  a  fact  which  so  far  as  I  have 
noticed  has  been  overlooked  in  the  discussions  of  this 
question,  i.e.,  the  tendency  of  injured  animals  to  sleep. 
The  sick  or  wounded  bird  or  animal  as  a  rule  falls  into  a 
profound  sleep,  thus  escaping  from  pain,  and  in  this  sleep 
recovery  takes  place.  Animals  also  appear  to  possess 
a  capacity  for  the  inhibition  of  pain  which  we  do  not  know. 
It  is  unusual  to  see  in  them  indications  of  suffering  after 
the  injury  has  occurred.  Fowls  will  pick  up  food  only  a 
few  minutes  before  death.  Horses  after  receiving  ghastly 
wounds  in  battle  have  been  found  contentedly  cropping 
grass.  In  general  it  is  interesting  to  observe  how  the  trend 
of  modem  thought  tends  to  substantiate  Schopenhauer's 
position  that  the  unconscious  volitional  element  in  man  is 
fundamental,  while  the  conscious,  rational  element  is  ac- 
quired, and  that  the  former  which  normally  regulates  our 
functions  is  also  most  active  in  the  elimination  of  disease.1 

1  See  e.g.  W.  Hanan  Thomson's  work,  Brain  and  Personality,  Dodd, 
Mead  and  Co.,  New  York,  1902,  in  which  Dr.  Thomson  shows  how  true 
this  is  in  the  development  of  the  higher  brain  centers  controlling  speech, 
visual  and  auditory  memories,  etc. 


CHAPTER  IV 

AUTO-SUGGESTION 

WE  have  seen  how  powerfully  suggestion  operates 
when  administered  in  the  waking  state  or  in  a  hypnotic 
sleep.  Let  us  now  consider  a  third  form  of  suggestion 
in  which  the  idea  presented  to  the  mind  takes  its  origin, 
not,  as  in  the  other  two  forms,  from  without,  but  from 
within,  is  produced  by  the  activity  of  one's  own  brain. 
To  this  process  has  been  given  the  name  Auto-Suggestion, 
a  barbaric  but  convenient  term,  of  Greek  and  Latin  origin, 
meaning  a  hint  offered  by  the  self  to  the  self.  It  differs 
from  suggestion  only  in  this,  that  the  point  of  departure 
of  the  hint  is  within  the  individual,  whereas  in  the  case  of 
suggestion  it  is  without.  At  bottom,  suggestion  and  auto- 
suggestion are  the  same.  The  mechanism  of  the  brain 
which  carries  into  effect  the  suggestion  offered  in  a  hyp- 
notic or  hi  a  waking  state  carries  into  effect  also  auto- 
suggestion; in  the  one  as  in  the  other  there  is  the  same 
mental  state  of  heightened  suggestibility ;  and  common  to 
both  are  the  same  morbid  and  healing  effects.  Auto-sug- 
gestion may  be  denned,  then,  as  a  self-imposed  narrowing 
of  the  field  of  consciousness  to  one  idea,  by  holding  a 
given  thought  in  the  mental  focus,  to  the  exclusion  of  all 
other  thoughts.  This  statement,  of  course,  does  not  solve 

93 


94 


RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 


the  problem  of  auto-suggestion:  it  is  intended  simply  to 
express  what  is  meant  by  the  word.  The  thing  itself, 
the  psychical  process  covered  by  the  word,  remains  and 
is  likely  to  remain  for  a  long  time  the  standing  riddle  of 
psychology.  What  it  is  in  its  ultimate  nature,  how  it  oper- 
ates, and  what  are  its  physiological  or  nervous  concomi- 
tants, no  man  knows.  That  it  is  a  reality,  however,  and 
a  reality  of  the  highest  psychical  and  ethical  significance, 
no  man  may  doubt. 

To  be  convinced  of  its  reality  one  has  but  to  take  a 
glance  at  the  history  of  ideas  and  especially  of  religious 
ideas.  The  amulets  and  charms  of  savage  men  owed 
what  efficacy  they  possessed  to  the  fact  that  they  were 
the  symbols  of  an  inner  mental  state,  the  objects  to  which 
the  desire  or  yearning  could  attach  itself  —  in  a  word, 
they  were  auto-suggestions  done  into  wood  or  stone. 
With  the  rise  of  polytheism,  auto-suggestion  takes  the 
form  of  dreams  or  even  of  self-induced  hallucinations  in 
which  the  god  appears  and  says  the  redeeming  and  saving 
word  to  the  suppliant.  And  when  we  rise  still  higher,  what 
is  the  goal  of  the  ancient  Vedantist  philosophy  of  India,  the 
union  of  the  individual  ego  or  soul  with  Brahman,  the  cos- 
mic Divine  essence,  what  is  the  Neo-platonic  ecstasy  in 
which  the  soul  flees  from  earth  and  time  and  becomes  a 
citizen  of  the  eternal  world,  what  are  the  transcendental 
visions  of  Swedenborg,  his  angels  and  demons,  heavens 
and  hells  —  what  are  these  but  elaborate  and  profound 
auto-suggestions  ?  Nor  has  the  Christian  religion  left  this 
element  in  the  psychical  organism  unaffected.  Some  of 
the  phenomena  of  the  Apostolic  age,  such  as  "the  speaking 
with  tongues,"  are  to  be  thus  psychologically  explained. 


AUTO-SUGGESTION  95 

So  too  in  a  measure  may  we  account  for  the  intrepidity 
the  more  than  human  endurance  with  which  old  men  and 
children,  young  men  and  maidens,  faced  death  in  the 
Roman  amphitheatre  in  a  form  so  terrible  that  its  mere 
description  turns  cold  our  blood  to-day.  Auto-hypnotism 
may  well  have  been  the  means  by  which  the  Divine  mercy 
spared  them  the  worst  agonies  of  their  fate.  And  when 
we  come  later  to  the  mystics  and  monks  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  much  in  their  experience  which  has  been  rejected 
by  the  scientific  mind  as  incredible,  and  accepted  by  the 
religious  mind  as  miraculous,  is  now  seen  to  be  neither 
one  nor  other,  but  a  reality  to  be  explained  in  terms  of 
psychical  processes.  Perhaps  the  most  striking  of  these 
phenomena  is  that  of  stigmatization  which  has,  however, 
been  paralleled  in  our  own  time  in  the  case  of  some 
hysterical  patients.  From  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  and 
Catherine  of  Siena  to  the  famous  case  of  Louise  Lateau 
there  has  been  a  succession  of  susceptible  souls  who  by 
intense  mental  concentration  on  the  sufferings  of  the 
Saviour,  on  the  wounds  in  his  hands  and  feet  and  side, 
have  in  some  way,  inexplicable  to  physiology,  so  affected 
the  bodily  organism  as  to  reproduce  in  it  the  sorrows  of 
the  Crucified.  And  thus  in  a  very  real  sense  they  may  be 
said  to  have  borne  "branded  on  their  bodies  the  marks 
of  the  Lord  Jesus."1 

1  For  a  philosophy  of  auto-suggestion  the  reader  is  referred  to  F.  W.  H. 
Myers'  Human  Personality  and  Its  Survival  of  Bodily  Death,  vol.  ii, 
pp.  311-314- 

"  There  will  be  effective  therapeutical  or  ethical  self-suggestion  when- 
ever by  any  artifice  subliminal  attention  to  a  bodily  function  or  to  a 
moral  purpose  is  carried  to  some  unknown  pitch  of  intensity  which 
draws  energy  from  the  metetherial  world."  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  218. 


96  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

Actual  observation  and  experiment  in  our  own  time 
have  confirmed  the  testimony  of  history  as  to  the  reality 
of  auto-suggestion.  We  know,  for  example,  that  the 
hypnotist  with  a  few  words  whispered  to  his  subject  can 
induce  in  him  a  headache  or  colic  or  an  attack  of  indi- 
gestion, nay,  that  the  same  pathological  states  can  be 
induced  by  waking  suggestion  in  the  case  of  specially 
suggestible  people.  Why  then  should  not  an  idea  arising 
internally  —  an  auto-suggestion  —  bring  about  the  same 
effects?  And  as  a  matter  of  fact  we  find  this  to  be  the 
case.  The  psychical  disorder  called  hypochondria  is 
really  the  fruit  of  vicious  auto-suggestion.  "Feelings  of 
uneasiness  or  even  pain  originate  in  the  mind  a  suspicion 
of  disease  existing  in  particular  parts  of  the  body,  it  may 
be  the  lungs,  stomach,  heart,  brain,  liver,  or  kidneys. 
Slight  irregularities  and  functional  disturbances  in  the 
action  of  these  organs  being  noticed,  are  at  once  sugges- 
tive, to  those  hypochondriacally  disposed,  of  serious  and 
fatal  disease  progressing  in  the  part  to  which  the  atten- 
tion is  conveyed.  This  deviation  from  a  natural  state  of 
certain  functions  frequently  lapses  into  actual  structural 
disease,  as  the  effect  of  the  attention  being  for  a  lengthened 
period  morbidly  concentrated  on  their  action."1 

Take  two  typical  illustrations.  A  youth  is  struck  by 
the  fact  that  the  majority  of  the  members  of  his  family 
die  of  heart  disease  at  a  given  period  of  life,  and  he  is 
forced  to  believe  that  a  like  fate  awaits  him.  But  the 
day  is  as  yet  distant:  he  is  young,  and  the  idea  does  not 
unduly  worry  him.  Still  it  exists  in  the  subconscious 

1  Forbes  Winslow,  M.D.,  On  the  Obscure  Diseases  of  the  Brain  and 
Disorders  of  the  Mind,  pp.  221  sig. 


AUTO-SUGGESTION  97 

region  of  his  mind:  and  occasionally  it  reappears  as  the 
years  pass  by.  But  the  time  approaches  when  his  family 
weakness  is  accustomed  to  disclose  itself:  the  auto-sug- 
gestion gathers  strength  unless  the  healthy  elements  in 
consciousness  can  suppress  it.  Often  the  imagination 
creates  nervous  cardiac  pain,  and  the  sufferer  feels  pal- 
pitations and  flutterings  and  these  will  give  a  basis,  a 
point  of  support  for  the  auto-suggestion,  and  at  once  a 
conviction  that  the  disease  is  real,  and  the  fatal  hour  has 
struck,  seizes  the  mind  with  overpowering  force.  And 
this  conviction  reacts  on  the  physical  organ,  giving  rise  to 
all  kinds  of  nervous  complications.  The  man  sinks  into 
chronic  invalidism  —  the  victim  of  an  auto-suggestion.1 
The  other  illustration  is  afforded  by  a  sufferer  known  to 
us  whose  trouble  is  to  be  traced  to  the  reading  of  a  medical 
work  —  a  practice  which  the  non-medical  person  would  do 
well  to  avoid.  Nowhere  is  the  adage  so  much  to  the 
point  as  here:  "A  little  knowledge  is  a  dangerous  thing." 
Our  lady  friend,  while  feeling,  from  some  accidental  and 
temporary  cause,  depressed  and  melancholy,  happened 
to  read  that  slow  and  difficult  speech  is  a  sign  of  approach- 
ing paresis  or  paralysis.  She  at  once  felt  that  such  a  fate 
would  be  hers,  and  sure  enough,  soon  afterwards  she 
developed  a  slow,  drawling  utterance  which  of  course 
tended  to  confirm  the  original  self-suggestion.  The  ex- 
perts were  agreed  that  there  was  no  organic  disease 
present  and  convinced  the  patient  of  that  fact:  neverthe- 
less, the  self-suggestion  had  done  its  work  and  the  speech 
defect  persisted.  The  remedy  was  found  in  reversing 

1  See  Lefevre:  Les  Phenomenes  de  Suggestion  et  D'Auto  Suggestion, 
pp.  112  seq. 


98  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

the  psychical  process  that  brought  about  the  mischief, 
in  substituting  a  true  for  a  false  auto-suggestion.  Illus- 
trations of  this  order  may  be  found  among  all  sufferers 
from  nervous  disorders.  Indeed  hysteria  has  been  de- 
fined as  "a  form  of  unconscious  auto-hypnotism."  And 
the  miseries  of  neurasthenia  are  immensely  increased  by 
the  same  morbid  cause.  Dubois  has  given  abundant 
illustrations  of  this  fact  in  his  interesting  work, 
"Psychic  Treatment  of  Nervous  Disorders."  And  his 
great  success  in  dealing  with  these  disorders  has  been 
due  to  his  singular  skill  in  leading  his  patient  to  substi- 
tute good  auto-suggestions  for  bad  ones. 

But  the  power  of  auto-suggestion  is  seen  in  normal  as 
in  abnormal  humanity.  Many  of  the  little  mannerisms 
and  habits  from  which  we  seem  unable  to  shake  ourselves 
free  are  to  be  explained  in  this  way.  One  person  can  not 
sleep  except  when  lying  on  his  right  side,  another  can 
eat  mutton  but  regards  veal  with  aversion,  and  a  third, 
if  he  is  to  be  comfortable  while  traveling,  must  sit  with 
his  back  to  the  engine.  Such  are  some  of  the  tricks 
we  play  upon  ourselves.  Unhappily  the  force  of  auto- 
suggestion is  operative  in  more  important  concerns. 
The  fanatic  whether  in  politics  or  in  theology  is  the 
bond-slave  of  his  self-suggestion:  the  whole  universe  is 
for  him  concentrated  into  a  single  red-hot  spot  —  his 
consciousness  is  narrowed  to  this  point  and  for  him 
everything  else  is  not.  The  heresy  hunter,  the  dietetic 
"crank"  who  would  reconstruct  the  order  of  human  life 
on  the  basis  of  "  predigested "  cereals,  the  temperance 
or  teetotal  "faddist"  who  believes  that  the  utter  abolition 
of  alcohol  would  mean  the  dawn  of  millennial  glory  — 


AUTO-SUGGESTION 


99 


these  familiar  figures  in  English  and  American  life  are  all 
intelligible  in  the  light  of  the  psychological  principle 
which  we  are  now  discussing.  What  these  men  are 
suffering  from  is  a  dissociation  of  consciousness,  more  or 
less,  and  they  become  normal  men  once  consciousness  is 
unified  and  they  see  life  steadily  and  as  a  whole. 

So  far  we  have  noted  the  mischievous  effects  that  auto- 
suggestion can  work.  But  it  is  also  a  power  for  good. 
As  a  therapeutic  agency  and  uplifting  ethical  force,  its 
value  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  The  various  troubles, 
physical  and  mental,  which  are  amenable  to  its  influence 
make  a  long  list.  A  few  may  be  named:  the  milder 
neurasthenic  and  hypochondriacal  states,  functional  dis- 
turbances of  the  digestive  apparatus,  constipation  not 
dependent  on  organic  disease,  mild  insomnia,  certain 
forms  of  neuralgic  headaches,  the  milder  types  of  melan- 
cholia, irritability  of  temper,  lack  of  self-confidence,  con- 
stitutional nervousness,  swearing,  perverse  self-will,  vicious 
habits,  stage-fright,  and  various  types  of  lesser  obsessions. 
In  these  and  other  troubles  the  patient  can,  as  Shakespeare 
says,  "minister  to  himself."  What  a  gospel  of  hope  is 
here  for  the  depressed  and  unhappy!  What  a  chance  of 
redemption  for  those  who  are  the  slaves  of  circumstance 
or  of  their  own  folly!  In  saying  this  we  are  not  giving 
rein  to  an  airy  optimism:  we  are  keeping  well  within  the 
limits  of  sober  reasoning  and  scientific  fact.  All  func- 
tions of  the  bodily  organism  are  controlled  oy  the  nerves, 
which  end  in  the  brain  mechanism  which  in  turn  is  de- 
pendent on  ideas.  If,  then,  mischievous  ideas  set  in 
action  the  automatism  of  the  brain  and  thus  create  a  mor- 
bid state,  does  it  not  follow  that  good  ideas,  opposing 


100  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

auto-suggestions,  will  neutralize  these  first  and  thereby 
dissipate  the  nervous  or  mental  trouble  ?  In  other  words, 
if  one  state  of  mind  can  produce  a  disease  another  state 
of  mind  can  effect  a  cure. 

In  a  remarkable  essay,1  Dr.  Coste  de  Lagrave,  a  French 
physician,  describes  a  number  of  experiments  which  he 
made  upon  himself  during  several  years  —  experiments 
by  which  he  was  able  to  cure  himself  of  certain  physical 
weaknesses  and  to  evoke  latent  qualities  of  soul  and 
intellect.  For  example,  following  on  an  attack  of  dysen- 
tery he  developed  neurasthenia.  Prominent  among  the 
symptoms  was  an  extraordinary  sense  of  fatigue:  he  could 
with  difficulty  walk  a  mile  a  day;  the  fatigue  obstacle  was 
insurmountable.  One  evening  he  suggested  to  himself 
that  he  would  be  able  to  walk  without  fatigue.  On  the 
following  day  he  walked  about  seven  miles  with  ease  —  a 
journey  broken  only  by  one  hour's  rest.  On  another 
occasion  when  riding  with  the  regiment  to  which  he  was 
attached  he  suffered  greatly  from  cold  feet.  Disposing 
himself  as  comfortably  as  possible  on  his  horse's  back, 
he  closed  his  eyes,  induced  a  somnolent  state  and  then 
suggested  to  himself  that  his  feet  should  be  warm.  In 
about  half  an  hour  he  felt  a  distinct  sensation  of  warmth 
in  them.  This  lasted  for  ten  minutes:  unhappily,  his 
mind  called  away  to  other  things,  his  poor  feet  at  the  end 
of  that  brief  respite  returned  to  their  original  state  of 
frigidity.  He  aid  not  resume  the  effort  at  auto-suggestion 
owning  to  the  accompanying  mental  fatigue.  "I  pre- 
ferred," he  says,  "to  have  cold  feet."  In  the  intellectual 

1  Read  before  the  first  Paris  International  Congress  of  Experimental 
and  Therapeutic  Hypnotists.  See  the  proceedings,  pp.  290-311. 


AUTO-SUGGESTION  101 

sphere  he  found  auto-suggestion  of  the  highest  value.  It 
was  his  duty  to  entertain  a  certain  great  lady,  but  his 
efforts  at  doing  so  proved  a  miserable  failure:  he  was 
tongue-tied  in  her  presence,  and  his  first  visit  was  very 
short.  Thanks  to  auto-suggestion,  however,  on  the 
second  occasion  he  burst  forth  into  conversational  elo- 
quence that  lasted  an  hour  and  a  quarter!  But  perhaps 
his  most  striking  experiment  was  his  self-suggestion  that 
he  should  have  abundance  of  ideas,  and  that  he  should 
have  ease  in  putting  them  on  paper.  He  found  that  the 
amount  of  literary  work  he  was  able  to  accomplish  was 
in  proportion  to  the  duration  of  the  auto-suggestion.  On 
the  other  hand,  he  noticed  that  when  he  failed  to  make 
his  auto-suggestions  he  could  not  write  ten  lines  and  was 
compelled  to  turn  to  something  else.  So  powerful  did 
his  act  of  auto-suggestion  become  that  he  was  able  to 
produce  dreams  and  even  hallucinations.  "I  no  longer 
lived,"  he  says,  "among  the  living  but  in  another  world 
—  a  world  that  thought  and  reasoned  quite  differently 
from  this  one."  This  last  experience  so  frightened  him 
that  he  ceased  his  experiments  in  the  region  of  dreams 
and  fancies.  Our  observation,  so  far  as  it  has  gone,  con- 
firms the  testimony  of  this  scientific  witness. 

Many  have  come  to  us  suffering  from  disagreeable 
habits  of  various  kinds,  from  fears  and  inhibitions  such 
as  stage-fright,  from  nervous  weakness  and  lack  of  vital 
energy,  and  they  have  been  put  in  the  path  of  self-cure 
by  being  taught  how  to  practice  auto-suggestion.1  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  remark  at  this  point  that  auto-sug- 
gestion no  more  than  any  other  form  of  suggestion  is  an 

1  See  Appendix  A. 


102  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

omnipotent  power.  It  has  its  limitations.  In  the  first 
place,  the  organs  by  which  the  auto-suggestion  is  realized 
must  be  themselves  in  a  healthy  state  organically.  The 
hypnotist  may  call  upon  his  subject  to  move  his  arm  or 
leg,  but  if  the  motor  zone  of  the  patient's  brain  is  de- 
stroyed, the  command  will  remain  unfulfilled.  The  same 
thing  holds  good  in  the  case  of  the  auto-hypnotist.  Hence 
the  importance  of  examination  by  a  competent  medical 
authority,  before  undertaking  the  work  of  self-cure. 
Otherwise,  failure  and  despair  may  attend  the  effort.  In 
the  second  place,  we  must  note  the  limitations  in  the  men- 
tal realm.  The  auto-suggestionist  must  have  the  intellec- 
tual acquisitions  in  connection  with  the  idea  which  he 
seeks  to  realize.  Otherwise  he  is  addressing  a  vacuum 
—  the  most  hopeless  of  all  tasks. 

If  an  illiterate  man  is  put  into  a  hypnotic  sleep  and  is 
ordered  to  preach  a  sermon  before  a  large  congregation, 
he  will  probably  misquote  a  few  half -forgotten  scraps 
from  the  Bible,  his  exegesis  will  be  loose,  his  argu- 
ments will  be  painful  platitudes,  and  his  illustrations,  to 
say  the  least,  will  be  racy  of  the  soil  from  which  the 
preacher  sprang.  So  too  with  the  auto-suggestionist:  he 
must  have  the  prior  intellectual  accomplishments  which 
fit  him  to  play  the  wished  for  role.  We  cannot  say  with 
Dr.  Johnson  that  a  man  can  become  anything  he  chooses, 
a  great  musician,  a  great  mathematician  or  a  great  poet. 
Nevertheless  it  is  equally  true  that  a  man  can  if  he  will 
approximate  to  greatness  along  lines  hi  harmony  with 
his  nature.  "//  he  will"  —  "Ay,  there's  the  rub," 
the  reader  may  say.  "My  misery  is  that  I  cannot  will. 
I  am  blown  this  way  and  that.  I  seem  incapable  of 


AUTO-SUGGESTION  103 

gathering  up  my  forces  and  directing  them  to  some 
tolerable  end.  From  my  birth  I  have  been  a  weakling, 
a  moral  and  physical  failure.  To  bid  me  will  is  merely 
to  mock  me."  What  answer  can  be  made  to  this  cry  of 
wretchedness?  What  but  this:  "You  are  a  moral  being, 
endowed  with  reason  and  conscience,  and  these  insist 
that  you  ought  to  have  self-control,  that  you  ought  to 
organize  your  nature  on  a  moral  basis.  But  if  you 
ought,  you  can,  otherwise  the  Creator  has  put  us  to  per- 
manent confusion.  Appeal,  then,  to  yourself:  rouse  the 
capacity  to  will  that  lies  dormant  within  you:  rise  up 
and  obey  the  behests  of  your  better  self."  The  power 
to  will  comes  by  willing  just  as  the  power  to  think 
comes  by  thinking. 

"The  education  of  the  will,"  says  Emerson,  "is  the 
object  of  our  existence."  And  there  is  no  better  aid  in 
this  education  than  the  practice  of  auto-suggestion.  For 
what,  after  all,  is  the  will  ?  It  is  simply  the  effort  to  con- 
centrate our  attention  on  and  thus  select  one  idea  rather 
than  another.  Now  in  auto-suggestion  the  predominant 
element  is  the  concentration  of  thought  on,  or  the  narrow- 
ing of  consciousness  to,  a  single  idea.  So  that  in  a  sense 
we  might  say  that  auto-suggestion  is  simply  the  will  in 
action.  It  is  a  roundabout  way  of  getting  the  will  to  work. 
And  the  blessed  path  which  auto-suggestion  takes  is  that 
of  the  removal  of  inhibitions  or  checks  on  the  activity  of 
the  will.  Here  is  to  be  found  the  secret  of  that  new  sense 
of  power  which  has  come  into  so  many  lives  to-day  through 
the  medium  of  Christian  Science,  Faith-healing,  Meta- 
physical Healing,  the  Raja  Yoga  of  Indian  theosophy 
and  other  forms  of  mental  gymnastics.  These  systems 


104  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

are  so  many  aids  to  the  training  of  the  will  by  auto-sug- 
gestion so  that  the  reserves  of  mental  and  moral  energy 
within  us  may  be  made  available  for  physical  and  spiritual 
health.  Within  all  of  us  are  these  reservoirs  of  power, 
but  ordinarily  we  cannot  release  their  current,  they  are 
inhibited  by  various  psychical  influences.  "Most  of  us 
feel,"  says  Professor  James,  "as  if  we  lived  habitually 
with  a  sort  of  cloud  weighing  upon  us,  below  our  highest 
notch  of  clearness  in  discernment,  sureness  in  reasoning 
or  firmness  in  deciding  .  .  .  We  are  making  use  of  only 
a  small  part  of  our  possible  mental  and  physical  resources. 
In  some  persons  this  sense  of  being  cut  off  from  their 
rightful  resources  is  extreme  and  we  then  get  the  for- 
midable neurasthenic  and  psychasthenic  conditions,  with 
life  grown  into  one  tissue  of  impossibilities."  This  dis- 
tinguished writer  goes  on  to  show  how  "levels  of  new 
energy"  which  have  remained  unutilized  may  be  tapped 
by  the  will  set  to  work  by  various  suggestive  methods.1 
Thus  modern  psychology  puts  ifs  imprimatur  on  a  very 
ancient  doctrine,  though  in  doing  so  it  strips  it  of  its 
occult  and  mysterious  atmosphere.  From  this  point  of 
view,  auto-suggestion  may  be  described  as  a  means  by 
which  the  pent-up  energies  within  us  may  be  released  to 
innervate  afresh  the  whole  man,  or,  to  use  psychological 
language,  as  the  method  by  which  the  inhibitions  may  be 
lessened  and  the  threshold  may  be  lowered  so  that  the 
stored -up  energy  may  be  made  available  for  the  restora- 
tion of  mental  and  physical  equilibrium. 
The  reader  may  ask:  What  of  the  dangers  attending 

1  See  a  notable  essay,  "The  Energies  of  Men,"  in  The  Philosophical 
Review  for  January,  1907. 


AUTO-SUGGESTION  105 

auto-suggestion?  Do  not  the  newspapers  print  stories 
from  time  to  time  of  persons  who  by  self-hypnotism  have 
done  themselves  irreparable  injury,  have  even  died  in  the 
act?  Doubtless:  but  have  not  newspaper  stories  come  to 
be  synonymous  with  "fairy  tales"?  Take  the  following 
as  a  safe  rule  especially  as  regards  psychological  matters: 
Read  newspapers  with  the  utmost  scepticism,  suspending 
your  judgment  until  after  the  closest  investigation.  An 
excellent  illustration  of  the  need  for  this  rule  has  been 
made  public  recently.  A  story  was  widely  published  to 
the  effect  that  a  certain  gentleman  had  hypnotized  him- 
self and  could  not  awaken  from  his  sleep,  and  finally  that 
he  died  from  the  effects  of  self-hypnosis.  Such  a  state- 
ment was  calculated  to  impress  the  popular  mind  and  to 
create  all  sorts  of  absurd  fears  much  to  the  detriment  of 
the  general  weal.  An  investigation  was  made.  It  turned 
out,  on  the  authority  of  the  attending  physician,  that  the 
gentleman  died  of  tumor  of  the  brain  and  the  story  re- 
ferred to  was  pronounced  to  be  a  concoction,  "pure  and 
simple,  the  finished  product  of  Yellow  Journalism, 
published  again  after  repeated  denials  of  its  truthful- 
ness."1 The  average  man  regards  all  psychical  phenom- 
ena with  suspicion  as  uncanny  and  other-worldly,  and 
the  average  editor  supplies  the  sensational  pabulum  that 
a  superstitious  credulity  demands. 

A  few  practical  hints  may  be  added :  — 

i.  Some  forms  of  acute  pain  are  amenable  to  auto- 
suggestion. Lie"beault  tells  how  he  cured  himself  by 
auto-hypnotism  of  such  a  painful  disorder  as  facial  neu- 

1  See  Journal  of  the  American  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  p.  430, 
September,  1907. 


I06  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

ralgia.    As  a  rule,  where  there  is  pain  the  curative  sug- 
gestion must  be  made  by  another. 

2.  Assuming  the  absence  of  acute  pain  and  of  any 
organic  disease,  auto-suggestion  may  be  entered  on  with 
confidence.    The  best  condition  for  its  induction  is  that 
of  somnolence,  whether  preceding  sleep  or  accompany- 
ing awaking.    At  night,  then,  and  in  the  morning,  imme- 
diately before  sleeping  and  immediately  after  beginning 
to  awake,  the  half-sleeping  and  half- waking  or  "hypna- 
gogic"  state  is  most  favorable  to  success.    By  practice  one 
can  induce  this  state  at  other  times. 

3.  Lying  in  bed  or  in  a  comfortable  arm-chair,  with 
the  eyes  closed  and  the  limbs  relaxed,  formulate  and  re- 
peat mentally  the  thought  that  contradicts  the  unhealthy 
state  of  consciousness  or  that  expresses  the  virtue  or 
quality  you  desire  to  possess.     The  auto-suggestion  must 
be  made  over  and  over  again,  not  with  a  sense  of  stress  or 
strain,  but  calmly  and  with  quiet  assurance.    Suppose 
you  are  a  victim  to  mental  sluggishness;  you  desire  to 
read  and  study,  to  realize  worthy  ambitions,  but  when  the 
time  comes  for  work  your  brain  refuses  to  act  and  thoughts 
will  not  come.    What  are  you  to  do  ? 

Choose  a  time  when  the  brain  is  most  suggestible  and 
that  is  generally  when  you  feel  an  inclination  to  sleep, 
then  calmly  formulate  in  your  mind  some  such  proposition 
as  this:  "I  am  organically  sound:  the  nervous  system 
is  intact;  the  bodily  organs  are  discharging  their  proper 
functions,  therefore  I  ought  to  have  a  mind  clear  and 
alert,  able  to  grasp  ideas  and  to  relate  them  logically: 
therefore,  such  a  mind  can  be  mine.  Henceforth  I  will 
think  easily  and  correctly:  study  will  be  a  delight  and  work 


AUTO-SUGGESTION  107 

a  joy."  Your  trouble  will  yield  to  repeated  suggestions 
of  this  order,  which  create,  as  it  were,  a  psychic  line  of 
least  resistance.  That  is,  it  will  become  easier  for  you 
to  think  well  and  quickly,  than  to  think  with  difficulty  or 
not  at  all. 

4.  Auto-suggestion  must  be  persistent  and  systematic. 
This  is  an  indispensable  prerequisite  to  the  best  results. 

5.  Some  degree  of  belief  in  the  reality  and  efficacy  of 
the  suggestive  principle  is  necessary.    The  subject  must 
admit  into  his  mind  the  thought  that  he  can  be  helped  so 
as  to  prevent  the  inhibition  of  the  auto-suggestion  by  the 
higher  faculties:  the  thought  admitted  puts  in  motion 
the  cerebral  mechanism. 

6.  Finally,  the  success  attending  auto-suggestion  varies 
with  the  mental  constitution  and  the  degree  of  suggesti- 
bility of  the  subject  and  the  nature  of  the  trouble  to  cure 
which  the  suggestion  is  made. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  FUNCTIONAL  NEUROSES 

As  we  hope  that  this  book  will  be  of  some  service  to 
nervous  sufferers,  we  are  loath  to  introduce  into  it  any 
descriptions  of  disease.  But  on  the  other  hand  the  chief 
object  we  have  proposed  to  ourselves  is  an  account  of  the 
work  undertaken  for  the  benefit  of  the  sick  hi  Emmanuel 
Church,  and  to  give  this  without  any  discussion  of  the 
disorders  we  attempt  to  treat  is  impossible.  The  sick 
are  therefore  advised  to  skip  this  chapter  and  they  would 
probably  do  so  without  advice. 

Every  one  knows  how  difficult  it  is  to  describe  nervous- 
ness, partly  because  its  forms  are  so  protean,  its  phenom- 
ena are  so  rich;  partly  because  they  are  so  elusive.  Nor 
is  this  to  be  wondered  at  when  we  remember  the  infinite 
delicacy  and  complexity  of  the  nervous  system,  and  its 
intimate  connection  with  our  moral  life.  On  these 
accounts,  nervous  affections  are  apt  to  be  more  diffused 
than  others,  their  symptoms  more  variable,  their  forms 
more  fluid  and  indistinct.  The  nervous  system  is  general 
and  possesses  a  great  variety  of  elements,  and  its  diseases 
also  are  general  and  less  susceptible  than  others  of  definite 
classification.  They  may  affect  one  organ  or  the  whole 
system,  sensibility,  locomotion,  intellect,  and  character. 
The  difficulty  of  classifying  nervous  disorders  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  their  nomenclature  is  constantly  changing. 

1 08 


THE  FUNCTIONAL  NEUROSES  109 

A  little  while  ago  everyone  spoke  of  nervous  prostra- 
tion. Now  almost  every  form  of  nervousness  is  referred 
to  as  neurasthenia.  The  disorder  known  as  psychas- 
thenia  is  not  mentioned  in  the  older  books,  while 
hypochondria  of  which  we  used  to  hear  so  much  has 
become  unfashionable.  This  fact  should  be  carefully 
borne  in  mind.  Though  the  several  recognized  types  of 
nervous  disorders  present  some  more  or  less  constant 
forms  and  symptoms,  yet  these  forms  tend  constantly  to 
merge  and  to  blur  the  picture.  They  have  been  com- 
pared 1  to  the  old  so-called  temperaments,  the  sanguine, 
the  phlegmatic,  the  choleric,  and  the  melancholic.2  No 
doubt  these  represent  real  aspects  of  human  nature. 
The  difficulty  is  that  few  human  beings  possess  them  in 
their  pure  forms.  The  same  is  true  of  nervous  disorders. 
We  speak  of  the  neurasthenic  temperament,  the  melan- 
cholic, the  hysterical,  etc.,  but  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  the  diagnosis  is  determined  by  the  dominant  note, 
while  the  minor  symptoms  may  be  identical.  Mobius 
has  prepared  a  kind  of  schematic  representation  of  the 
several  neuroses,  both  functional  and  organic,  in  which 
their  types  are  classified  and  their  general  relations  in- 
dicated by  intersecting  circles,  or  by  straight  lines,  e.g., 
those  leading  from  St.  Vitus'  dance  to  epilepsy.  The  great 

1  —  e.g.,  by  the  celebrated  Paul  Julius  Mobius  whose  admirable  work, 
both  literary  and  scientific,  deserves  to  be  better  known  in  this  country. 
I  have  drawn  on  the  latter  freely  in  the  preparation  of  this  chapter 
and  the  two  following  chapters  —  especially  on  Die  Nervositat,  Dritte 
Aufl.  Leipsic,  1906. 

a  "The  ancient  distinction  of  the  four  temperaments  which  psychology 
borrowed  from  the  medical  theories  of  Galen  sprang  from  a  fine  obser- 
vation of  individual  differences  of  men."  W.  Wundt,  Phys.  Psychol. 
II,  422. 


HO  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

central  circle,  Nervousness,  it  will  be  observed,  intersects 
all  the  others,  and  within  this  circle  lies  a  smaller  one 
called  nervous  weakness  or  neurasthenia,  as  this  lies  at 
the  center  of  all  the  neuroses  without  presenting  in  itself 
their  peculiar  phenomena.  This  scheme  is  interesting 


and  instructive  provided  it  be  remembered  that  it  is  only 
a  mechanical  device  which  does  not  pretend  to  express 
everything. 

A  neurosis  is  an  affection  of  the  nervous  system  whether 
it  is  functional  or  organic,  local  or  general,  in  its  character. 


THE  FUNCTIONAL  NEUROSES  in 

Functional  neuroses  or  functional  nervous  disorders  are 
those  which  involve  no  change  in  the  form  and  structure 
of  the  elements  and  organs  of  the  nervous  system,  or 
rather,  since  every  effect  must  have  its  cause,  they  are 
those  which  involve  no  change  which  can  be  perceived. 
What  we  ordinarily  call  nervousness  is  less  a  disease  than 
a  condition,  the  result  of  overstrain  or  over  stimulation 
of  our  nervous  system,  and  here  the  difficulty  of  denning 
nervous  disorders  appears.  The  most  healthy  person 
may  feel  the  subjective  depression,  the  sense  of  irritable 
weakness  and  exhaustion  which  we  call  nervousness. 
But  when  this  condition  is  not  removed  by  normal  rest, 
when  it  becomes  acute  and  gives  rise  to  a  general  physical 
debility,  it  is  called  neurasthenia. 

Neurasthenia,  as  the  name  implies,  indicates  a  condition 
of  nervous  weakness  and  irritability.  It  is  the  most  com- 
mon and  least  specialized  of  the  functional  neuroses. 
Mobius  expresses  this  by  placing  neurasthenia  which  he 
calls  nerve  weakness  at  the  center  of  his  chart,  on  the 
ground  that  all  other  nervous  disorders  are  attended  by 
irritability  and  exhaustion.  Persons  suffering  from  neu- 
rasthenia are  easily  excited  and  they  tire  easily.  They  are 
apt  to  suffer  from  depression  and  from  pains  in  the  back 
and  limbs,  from  headache  and  insomnia.  Their  en- 
feebled condition  exposes  them  to  other  maladies  such  as 
digestional  disturbances,  vertigo  and  palpitation  of  the 
heart,  weakness  of  vision,  and  in  severe  cases  it  may 
amount  to  absolute  prostration.  Neurasthenia  is  fre- 
quently attended  by  loss  of  flesh,  which,  as  Dr.  Mitchell 
points  out,1  is  an  important  symptom  in  itself  and  because 
1  Fat  and  Blood,  p.  15. 


112  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

it  is  apt  to  be  attended  by  anaemia.  What  is  the  cause  of 
this  weakness  and  exhaustion  which  cannot  be  removed 
by  normal  rest?  Apart  from  hereditary  predisposition, 
it  is  almost  invariably  psychical  in  its  origin.  The  patient 
has  been  subjected  to  a  nervous  strain  too  great  for  his 
powers.  He  has  experienced  some  moral  shock,  or  has 
undergone  an  experience  which  has  given  rise  to  anxiety, 
worry,  or  fear,  any  of  which  may  result  in  profound 
depression,  the  weakening  of  the  normal .  powers  of  re- 
sistance. In  fact  all  the  functional  neuroses  are  to  be 
regarded  as  diseases  of  the  subconscious  mind.  By  recog- 
nizing this  we  simplify  diagnosis,  and  we  are  in  a  position 
to  understand  why  it  is  that  one  form  of  nervous  disorder 
passes  so  readily  into  another.  When  the  psychical 
poise  is  established  the  physical  symptoms  usually  dis- 
appear. In  many  cases  this  is  most  readily  attained  by 
the  admirable  system  of  treatment  devised  by  Dr.  Mitchell; 
but  as  Dr.  Mitchell  affirms,1  no  treatment  of  neurasthenia 
succeeds  which  ignores  its  moral  aspects. 

2.  Hysteria,  although  pre-eminently  an  affection  of 
women,  has  no  necessary  connection  with  the  reproduc- 
tive organs  (hystera  —  womb).  The  interesting  char- 
acteristic of  hysteria  is  that  the  thoughts  of  persons 
suffering  from  it  create  morbid  physical  and  mental  con- 
ditions, e.g.,  violent  pains  and  partial  paralysis,  in  short 
the  very  conditions  which  can  be  produced  by  suggestion. 
This  fact  led  Frederic  Myers  to  propose  his  interesting 
theory  that  hysteria  is  at  bottom  a  disease  of  the  sub- 

'"The  physician  who  neglects  to  consider  the  moral  and  mental 
needs  and  aspects  of  each  case  will  find  that  many  will  relapse."  —  Fat 
and  Blood,  p.  79. 


THE  FUNCTIONAL  NEUROSES  113 

conscious  mind,  a  theory  which  is  now  generally  accepted. 
"It  is  a  striking  characteristic  of  the  hypnotic  self  that  it 
can  exercise  over  the  nervous,  vasomotor,  and  circulatory 
systems  a  degree  of  control  unparalleled  in  waking  life. 
Are  we  aware  in  practice  of  any  malady  or  group  of 
maladies  in  which  these  functions,  these  capacities,  are  the 
subject  of  special  disturbances?  Are  there  anaesthesiae 
appearing,  shifting,  and  disappearing  as  rapidly  as  the  sug- 
gested anaesthesias  of  hypnotism?  Are  there  anomalous 
vasomotor  disturbances  which  seem  to  follow  the  patient's 
mere  caprice?  The  reader  will  answer  with  the  word 
hysteria,  and  meaningless  or  misleading  though  that  term 
be,  it  is  in  fact  our  first  and  obvious  reply.  Not,  indeed, 
all,  but  almost  all  the  phenomena  which  can  be  induced 
by  suggestion  in  the  hypnotic  state  occur  spontaneously 
in  hysterical  patients."1  Charcot  and  his  disciples  also 
recognized  the  intimate  relation  of  hysteria  to  hypnotic 
phenomena,  but  instead  of  regarding  hysteria  as  a  disease 
of  the  subconscious  mind,  they  attempted  to  force  all 
hypnotic  phenomena  and  other  evidences  of  subcon- 
sciousness  into  the  category  of  hysteria.  The  un- 
answerable objection  to  this  is  that  more  than  ninety 
per  cent  of  normal  men  and  women  can  be  hypnotized, 
while  real  hysteria  is  comparatively  a  rare  disease. 
Myers'  theory,  therefore,  that  hysteria  is  a  disease  of  the 
subconscious  mind  may  be  regarded  as  highly  probable. 
Its  phenomena  are  produced  by  morbid  auto-suggestion 
over  which  normal  consciousness  has  little  control.  The 
most  constant  symptom  is  disturbance  of  sensibility.  The 
patient  may  be  insensitive  on  one  side  of  the  body,  she 

1  Quoted  by  Bramwell,  op.  cil.,  pp.  364-5. 


114  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

may  become  blind  in  one  eye  or  be  affected  by  mysterious 
pains  and  abnormal  feelings  in  Various  parts  of  the  body. 
One  leg  or  even  both  legs  may  be  paralyzed,  although 
this  is  a  mere  nervous  inhibition  as  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  the  paralyzed  limb  is  able  to  execute  all  other  move- 
ments than  those  involved  in  standing  and  walking.  The 
patient  may  suddenly  lose  her  voice  and  as  suddenly  re- 
cover it.  On  the  other  hand,  sensibility  may  be  heightened, 
certain  portions  of  the  body  become  exquisitely  sensitive 
and  the  patient  keenly  perceives  her  own  organic  processes. 
Palpitation  of  the  heart,  marked  difficulty  of  breathing, 
pain  hi  the  stomach,  strange  sensations  in  the  intestines 
may  ensue.  In  severer  cases  partial  or  general  con- 
vulsions may  occur  which  are  frequently  mistaken  for 
epilepsy  but  which  produce  little  if  any  effect  on  the  per- 
sonality. The  nervous  instability  of  the  hysterical  is  well 
known.  They  frequently  laugh  uncontrollably  and  their 
laughter  turns  to  tears  with  no  apparent  reason.  Per- 
sistent vomiting,  hiccoughing,  etc.,  frequently  occur. 
In  short  there  is  scarcely  a  functional  disturbance  which 
may  not  be  produced  by  hysteria  or  an  organic  disease 
whose  symptoms  cannot  be  counterfeited.  A  friend  of 
the  author  was  about  to  operate  for  the  removal  of  a 
moderately  large  abdominal  tumor.  When  the  patient 
was  etherized  the  tumor  disappeared  —  a  case  of  hyster- 
ical phantom  tumor.  The  very  general  character  of 
hysterical  symptoms  leads  us  to  suspect  a  general  cause 
like  the  subconscious  mind  which  is  able  to  control  all 
the  machinery  of  the  body.  The  pains,  anaesthesiae  and 
other  phenomena  of  hysteria  are  constantly  shifting.  As 
they  are  produced  by  suggestion,  they  can  be  removed  by 


THE  FUNCTIONAL  NEUROSES  115 

the  same  means.  The  underlying  cause,  however,  can- 
not be  so  easily  analyzed  or  disposed  of,  yet  suggestion 
unquestionably  is  the  best  method  of  treatment.  I  have 
observed  a  marked  difference,  however,  in  hysterical 
patients.  Some  are  controlled  almost  wholly  by  their 
own  suggestions  and  are  difficult  to  influence,  while 
others  yield  much  more  readily. 

The  psychical  symptoms  of  hysteria  are  hardly  less 
pronounced.  We  observe  an  increased  emotional  ex- 
citability and  rapid  changes  of  mood.  Hysterical  persons 
are  naturally  keenly  interested  in  their  own  sensations  and 
feelings.  They  are  frequently  at  the  mercy  of  perverse 
impulses  and  deaf  to  reason.  They  are  capricious,  sen- 
sitive, and  irritable  and  seldom  wish  to  suffer  alone. 
Although  memory  sometimes  suffers  in  hysteria,  the 
intelligence  is  seldom  affected.  Hysterical  traits  are 
found  hi  all  nervous  disorders,  especially  in  nervous 
exhaustion,  but  they  usually  disappear  with  the  latter. 

3.  Of  late  years  a  third  type  of  nervous  disorder  has 
been  recognized  which  is  known  as  psychasthenia.1 
This  term  is  used  to  designate  a  form  of  nervous  weak- 
ness in  which  the  psychical  element  is  dominant.  Its 
distinctive  characteristics  are  weakness  of  will  and  over- 
scrupulousness,  frequently  accompanied  by  episodes  of 
a  strange  sense  of  the  unreality  of  all  things.  Psychas- 
thenic  patients  find  it  difficult  to  come  to  a  decision 
whether  the  matter  be  big  or  little,  and  this  inability 
troubles  them.  They  are  apt  to  doubt  and  to  question 
everything,  even  their  own  acts.  I  once  treated  a  school- 
teacher who  was  frequently  tormented  at  night  with  the 

1  This  word  is  not  found  in  the  Century  Dictionary,  ad  ed.,  1895;  it  was 
coined  by  Janet. 


Ii6  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

apprehension  that  she  had  locked  up  one  of  her  pupils  in 
the  school  building,  and  in  order  to  obtain  sleep  she  was 
obliged  more  than  once  to  visit  the  school  in  the  middle 
of  the  night  and  assure  herself  that  no  child  was  con- 
fined there.  Such  persons  are  frequently  compelled  to 
perform  an  act  a  second  time  to  assure  themselves  that 
they  have  actually  done  it.  They  are  troubled  and 
anxious  about  many  things  and  frequently  ascribe  this 
to  a  "New  England  Conscience."  In  severer  cases  they 
become  the  victims  of  morbid  fears  and  so-called  fixed 
ideas,  an  unspeakably  bitter  bondage  of  which  the  well 
can  form  no  conception.  These  phobias  may  attach 
themselves  to  almost  any  act  or  situation  of  life,  though 
as  a  rule  they  are  pretty  well  defined.  Their  victim  may 
recognize  their  absurdity.  He  may  keenly  appreciate 
the  fact  that  they  are  limiting  his  usefulness  and  cutting 
him  off  from  every  pleasure  in  life,  but  such  knowledge 
gives  him  no  power  to  resist  them.  I  will  give  a  few 
typical  cases  from  our  practice.  A  woman  read  of 
leprosy  in  the  Bible  and  that  one  or  two  Chinese  lepers 
had  been  discovered  in  this  country.  Immediately  she 
conceived  a  violent  dread  of  leprosy  and  also  the  idea 
that  she  and  her  children  were  exposed  to  it.  She  be- 
came afraid  to  touch  almost  every  object  and  spent  much 
of  her  time  in  washing  her  hands  until  she  reflected  that 
the  soap  might  be  infected,  a  thought  which  drove  her  to 
despair,  as  it  seemed  to  destroy  her  last  refuge.  This 
case  was  cured  by  repeated  suggestion. 

A  highly  educated  gentleman  dropped  a  tin  bucket 
down  a  well  many  years  ago.  In  peering  down  the  well 
he  became  dizzy  and  confused.  This  gave  him  an  aver- 


THE  FUNCTIONAL  NEUROSES  117 

sion  to  wells  and  also  to  tunnels.  Dreading  the  latter  he 
began  to  avoid  traveling  and  his  repugnance  toward 
tunnels  extended  itself  until  he  became  unwilling  to 
allow  anything  belonging  to  him  to  pass  through  them. 
Accordingly,  if  he  wished  to  send  a  letter  to  the  western 
part  of  Massachusetts  he  would  forward  his  letter  to  an- 
other point  and  have  it  remailed  in  order  that  it  might 
avoid  the  Hoosac  Tunnel.  The  next  development  of  his 
phobia  was  in  regard  to  his  own  movements.  If  he  set 
out  to  go  from  one  part  of  the  city  to  another,  he  must 
return  by  the  same  route  however  circuitous  it  might  be. 
By  the  way  he  went,  by  the  same  way  he  must  return, 
and  this  applied  particularly  to  entering  a  room  and 
departing  from  it.  I  have  seen  this  gentleman  tremble 
before  a  door  because  he  could  not  be  sure  that  it  was 
the  way  by  which  he  had  come  in,  and  because  he  could 
not  accept  my  assurance  as  to  the  fact.  Of  course  such 
fears  are  not  developed  without  much  curious  reasoning. 

A  third  patient  who  has  come  under  my  care  has  gradu- 
ally shut  himself  off  from  almost  every  necessity  of  life, 
some  morbid  fear  or  thought  interdicting  one  natural  and 
innocent  act  after  another.  For  years  he  has  drunk  no 
water,  nor  eaten  meat  or  bread,  nor  slept  in  bed,  nor  taken 
a  proper  bath.  Sometimes  for  weeks  he  cannot  remove 
his  clothing  as  every  button  gives  rise  to  questions  which 
require  hours  of  anxious  thought.  The  last  time  he  un- 
dressed himself  he  was  eight  hours  in  the  process,  and  all 
this  as  a  result  of  fears  which  he  feels  to  be  baseless  and 
in  consequence  of  a  train  of  reasoning  which  he  knows 
to  be  utterly  fallacious. 

In  such  cases  the  question  of  sanity  becomes  very  press- 


n8  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

ing.  Fortunately  most  phobias  and  fixed  ideas  are  limited 
in  their  domain  and  they  require  restraint  only  when  they 
become  dangerous  to  their  victim  or  to  others.  Unques- 
tionably mental  twists  of  this  kind  are,  like  hysteria,  to 
be  regarded  as  diseases  of  the  subconscious  personality. 
Such  suggestions  do  not  proceed  from  reason,  which  may 
be  unimpaired,  since  reason  resists  them  and  abhors  them. 
They  are  suggestions  issued  by  the  subconscious  mind, 
only  in  the  case  of  phobia  in  the  form  of  inhibition.  As 
they  are  rooted  in  the  subconscious  they  must  be  removed 
from  it,  and  the  best  means  to  effect  this  is  by  hypnotic 
suggestion  which  gradually  removes  the  suggested  fear 
and  strengthens  the  will  to  resist  it.  Mere  argument  is 
useless,  and  force  and  violence  are  worse  than  useless. 

4.  Melancholia. l  The  characteristic  trait  of  melan- 
cholia is  a  morbid  depression  of  self-consciousness,  a 
sadness  which  is  not  the  result  of  objective  conditions. 
A  sable  pall  seems  to  settle  upon  the  world  through 
which  the  sun  cannot  shine.  Every  event  is  the  cause 
of  new  sorrow  and  to  avoid  pain  the  melancholic  patient 
turns  away  from  all  external  happenings  and  broods  upon 
himself,  sometimes  refusing  to  speak  for  years.  Weak- 
ness of  the  will,  profound  indifference  to  the  ordinary 
interests  of  life,  and  callous  insensibility  to  those  he 
loved  are  further  symptoms  of  this  sad  disease  which 
cause  fresh  sorrow.  Sunk  in  a  sea  of  dark  and  gloomy 
thought,  the  melancholic  sufferer  often  dreams  of  suicide 
but  is  deterred  by  his  enfeebled  will.  Too  much  con- 
fidence, however,  is  not  to  be  placed  in  this  protection 
even  in  mild  melancholia,  as  many  have  learned  to  their 
sorrow.  Sometimes  the  disease  reaches  a  crisis  and  ex- 

1  Or  manic  depression. 


THE  FUNCTIONAL  NEUROSES  119 

plodes  in  some  violent  or  desperate  deed.  Melancholia 
not  infrequently  alternates  with  mania.1  Two  periods 
of  life  are  especially  exposed  to  it,  the  stormy  period  of 
early  manhood  and  the  oncoming  of  old  age.  In  its 
severer  forms  melancholia  is  regarded  as  a  true  mental 
disease,  and  as  such  it  is  not  amenable  to  psychical  treat- 
ment. I  have  recently  treated  a  patient  who  has  under- 
gone periods  of  more  or  less  acute  melancholia  for  more 
than  forty  years,  the  periods  lasting  for  several  months 
and  recurring  on  an  average  once  a  year.  In  this  case 
suggestion  appeared  to  be  very  successful,  but  I  am  ap- 
prehensive that  the  disease  will  return  as  it  does  in  all 
these  periodic  cases.  The  severer  cases  which  have  come 
to  my  knowledge  have  been  either  hereditary  or  they  have 
consisted  in  a  permanent  modification  of  a  temperament 
and  character  naturally  inclined  toward  melancholy,  and 
usually  this  has  been  attended  by  delusions  and  hallu- 
cinations of  a  depressing  or  dangerous  character.  These 
delusions  are  often  of  persecution,  or  they  may  attach 
themselves  to  religion.  In  the  latter  case  sound  and 
normal  religion  can  hardly  be  held  responsible  for  them, 
for  it  is  not  the  normal  conceptions  of  religion  which 
trouble  the  minds,  but  a  morbid  perversion  of  thought 
which  religion  repudiates  and  seeks  to  remove.  We  all 
know  apparently  sane  persons  of  so  bitter  and  morose  a 
disposition  that  a  comparatively  slight  exaggeration  of  it 
would  create  a  condition  of  true  mental  disease.  These 
unfortunate  beings  are  often  the  victims  of  melancholia, 
although  the  fact  may  not  be  known.  A  development  of 
the  disease,  however,  renders  them  dangerous  to  them- 
selves and  to  society. 

1  i.e.,  marked  exaltation. 


120  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

Apart  from  true  constitutional  melancholia  the  con- 
dition we  have  described  may  coexist  with  epilepsy  or 
hysteria  or  it  may  be  as  a  passing  psychosis,  the  result  of 
nervous  exhaustion,  excess,  or  painful  moral  experience. 
The  latter  forms  are  frequently  curable  by  suggestion 
and  moral  influence.  Indeed  Voisin  claims  to  have 
succeeded  with  several  cases  of  acute  and  severe  melan- 
cholia attended  with  dangerous  delusions,  which  had 
been  diagnosed  as  insanity.1  Melancholia  also  is  to  be 
regarded  as  an  affection  of  the  subconscious  mind.  In 
constitutional  cases  this  is  apparent.  But  even  in  func- 
tional cases  there  is  a  dissociation  which  concentrates 
attention  on  a  gloom  and  misery  which  exists  largely  in 
the  mind,  and  which  inhibit  all  joy-giving  emotions. 

5.  Hypochondria  is  a  curious  word  which  has  been 
used  time  out  of  mind  to  describe  a  form  of  melancholic 
disposition  in  which  the  attention  of  the  patient  is  fixed  on 
the  conditions  of  his  own  organism.  If  the  hypochon- 
driac falls  ill,  he  is  confident  that  his  sickness  is  severe  or 
mortal.  He  carefully  observes  his  symptoms,  and  loves 
to  read  medical  works,  referring  to  himself  all  the  horrors 
he  encounters  therein.  This  introspection  makes  its 
subject  and  object  apprehensive  and  egoistic.  Sometimes 
he  conceals  this  under  a  gloomy  air,  but  more  often  he 
delights  to  tell  his  own  woes  and  to  describe  his  symptoms 
to  the  amusement  or  annoyance  of  his  friends.  Nothing 
vexes  him  more  than  the  hint  that  his  sufferings  are 
imaginary,  and  in  one  sense  he  is  right,  for  although  often 
purely  subjective  in  origin  they  may  be  very  real.  For 

1  See  reports  of  Voisin's  cases  in  Bramwell,  op.  cit.,p.  212,  etc.,  and  a 
list  of  Dr.  Auguste  Voisin's  publications  on  p.  449. 


THE  FUNCTIONAL  NEUROSES  121 

not  only  can  our  physical  functions  be  deranged  by  con- 
stant attention,  but  true  morbid  conditions  can  be  created 
by  fear  and  strong  expectation,  e.g.,  the  phenomena  of 
hydrophobia,  cholera,  yellow  fever,  etc.,  which  have  been 
frequently  observed  in  persons  not  actually  infected. 
Hypochondriacal  or  somatic  delusions,  if  allowed  to  rise 
on  unchecked,  may  also  result  in  monomania.  Sufferers 
believe  that  their  heads  are  made  of  glass,  that  they  have 
insects  under  their  skins,  or  frogs  and  lizards  in  their 
stomachs.  Or  they  believe  that  the  source  of  their  pain- 
ful feelings  lies  outside  themselves,  that  they  are  victims 
of  fiends  and  demons,  that  their  enemies  are  trying  to 
poison  them,  etc.1  These  severe  symptoms  are  fortunately 
rare.  The  minor  phenomena  of  hypochondria,  however, 
are  very  common  and  they  are  sufficiently  definite  to 
deserve  recognition.  If  they  shade  insensibly  into  melan- 
cholia on  one  side,  they  are  frequently  produced  by  the 
same  conditions  which  cause  simple  neurasthenia  on  the 
other,  and  in  such  cases  when  the  nervous  exhaustion  is 
overcome  the  morbid  apprehensions  disappear.  The 
line  of  demarcation  between  hypochondria  and  hysteria  is 
also  frequently  vague.  This  has  led  some  neurologists  to 
drop  the  unmeaning  term  altogether,  and  to  substitute 
for  it  the  more  definite  and  significant  psychasthenia 
which,  however,  is  not  of  the  same  content. 

6.  Chorea  or  St.  Vitus'  Dance  is  characterized  by 
involuntary  irregular  movements  which  cease  in  sleep. 
Several  forms  of  this  disease  are  recognized,  especially 
the  hereditary  chorea  which  affects  whole  families,  and 
is  incurable,  and  the  infectious  form  which  usually  appears 

1  Mobius,  Nervositat,  p.  16. 


122  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

in  children  and  is  curable.  In  lighter  cases  of  the  latter 
the  children  are  often  regarded  as  mischievous  or  naughty. 
They  make  faces,  scratch  with  their  pens,  and  let  things 
fall  to  the  floor.  In  severe  cases  the  muscles  contract 
wildly  and  violently,  causing  strange  movements  which 
were  formerly  regarded  as  proofs  of  possession.  Speech 
is  affected  or  is  entirely  absent.  The  disposition  is 
irritable,  moody,  melancholy,  and  subject  to  outbursts 
of  passion.  This  disease  usually  attacks  weak  and 
delicate  children  and  causes  them  to  appear  weak-minded.1 
The  minor  chorea  is  frequently  contagious  in  the  sense 
that  one  child  acquires  the  habit  from  another,  through 
conscious  or  unconscious  imitation,  or  it  may  follow  in- 
tense fright  or  an  attack  of  rheumatism.  This  form  of 
chorea  is  distinctly  amenable  to  suggestion.  Bramwell 
reports  nine  cases  treated  with  success,2  and  we  are  able 
to  add  others.  The  appearance  of  chorea  in  later  life  is 
unusual,  and  when  it  occurs  it  is  apt  to  be  in  the  incurable 
form  and  on  a  hereditary  basis. 

7.  Mania.  Under  this  ill-omened  name  are  included 
all  those  mental  disturbances  whose  fundamental  trait 
is  the  domination  of  a  morbidly  exalted  self-consciousness 
(Mobius).  For  our  purpose  it  is  not  necessary  to  pene- 
trate far  into  this  melancholy  field.  What  leads  me  to 
enter  it  at  all  is  the  fact  that  a  condition  of  stormy 
excitement  known  as  manic  exaltation  occurs  in  the 
functional  neuroses.  These  states  though  frequently  re- 
current are  usually  short-lived.  While  they  persist  the 
patient  is  completely  dominated  by  a  violence  of  speech, 

1  Based  on  Mobius1  description. 
1  Op.  cit.,  pp.  260-1. 


THE  FUNCTIONAL  NEUROSES 


123 


of  thought  and  emotion.  He  will  pour  out  a  flood  of 
excited,  sometimes  meaningless  words.  He  will  utter 
threats  against  himself  and  others,  and  frequently  he  is 
unable  to  control  his  movements,  but  walks  violently 
back  and  forth  like  a  caged  animal.  These  states  can 
sometimes  be  checked  by  moral  means  at  their  incep- 
tion, but  when  they  pass  a  certain  stage  they  are  uncon- 
trollable and  must  be  allowed  to  wear  themselves  out. 
This  purely  functional  disturbance  which  resembles  strong 
excitement  and  anger  forms  one  of  the  intermediate  states 
which  lie  between  the  functional  neuroses  and  true  men- 
tal disease. 

The  most  constant  moral  symptoms  presented  by  the 
various  functional  neuroses  are  weakness  of  will,  i.e.,  in- 
ability to  make  a  decision,  lack  of  concentration,  i.e.,  in- 
ability to  fix  the  mind  on  one  subject,  weakness  of  memory, 
lack  of  self-control,  irritability,  rapid  exhaustion,  apathy, 
despondency,  and  fear.  It  is  these  moral  sufferings  and 
this  sense  of  abject  weakness  which  make  the  conditions 
we  have  described  so  terrible.  Other  sufferers  hope  on  to 
the  grave,  these  are  frequently  "sunk  in  despair  un- 
fathomably  deep."  These  diseases  have  found  expression 
in  every  literature,  but  no  one  has  described  the  horrors 
of  melancholia  and  insomnia  with  the  tragic  eloquence 
of  James  Thomson  with  whose  writings  1  every  neurologist 
should  be  familiar.  A  woman  said  to  me  a  while  ago: 
"Who  could  guess  that  the  mind  has  so  many  doors 
leading  directly  into  hell?"  Nervous  sufferers  frequently 
receive  but  scant  sympathy.  Because  their  maladies 

1  The  City  of  Dreadful  Night,  Vane's  Story,  A  Voice  from  the  Nile, 
Essays  and  Phantasies,  etc. 


I24  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

rest  on  no  palpable  organic  basis  they  are  thought  to  be 
imaginary.  If  by  imaginary  we  mean  unreal,  this  is  a 
great  mistake.  These  disturbances  are  indeed  subjective 
in  that  they  are  affections  of  personality,  but  in  admitting 
this  we  do  not  regard  them  as  unreal.  On  the  contrary, 
our  subjective  feelings  are  the  most  real  things  we  know. 
For  my  part,  I  would  rather  break  my  thigh  and  be  in- 
fected with  tuberculosis  than  endure  for  thirty  days  even 
sub-acute  melancholia  and  insomnia,  for  I  know  that  in 
the  former  case  I  should  suffer  less  and  recover  my  health 
sooner.  By  making  light  of  nervous  sufferings  we  simply 
repel  and  disgust  the  sufferers  and  render  ourselves  un- 
able to  help  them.  A  certain  amount  of  firmness  and  even 
of  sternness  is  frequently  necessary  in  dealing  with  neu- 
rotics, but  as  to  our  comprehension  and  sympathy  there 
should  be  no  doubt. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (HEREDITY) 

As  the  phenomena  of  nervousness  are  so  general  in 
character  we  may  well  suspect  its  causes  to  be  likewise 
general.  In  fact  in  so  far  as  nervousness  is  an  affection 
of  personality  we  may  look  for  its  causes  in  all  the  in- 
fluences which  affect  our  personality.  Modern  science 
has  reduced  these  to  two  general  categories,  heredity  and 
environment,  and  no  less  comprehensive  complex  of 
causality  will  account  for  the  well-nigh  universal  nervous- 
ness which  pervades  our  modern  world.  So  far  as  I  am 
aware  the  history  of  nervousness  has  not  been  written, 
but  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  nervousness 
was  unknown  to  the  ancient  world.  Where  insanity  and 
suicide  have  prevailed  we  may  be  sure  that  the  milder 
functional  disorders  were  not  absent.  To  cite  a  single 
example,  no  secondary  personalities  have  impressed 
themselves  more  deeply  upon  the  pages  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment than  the  sad  figures  of  the  demoniacs,  the  paralytics, 
the  epileptics,  and  the  maniacs  whom  Jesus  so  frequently 
encountered.  The  Jews,  with  their  wonderful  excess  of 
vital  power,  suffer  much  from  nervous  irritability  at  the 
present  time  and  with  them  this  is  no  new  disease.  The 
New  Testament  reveals  the  wide-spread  neurotic  condi- 
tions which  prevailed  at  the  time  of  Christ,  and  from  all 
we  know  of  the  moral  life  of  the  pagan  world  at  the  be- 

«5 


126  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

ginning  of  the  Christian  Era  it  is  plain  that  Graeco- 
Roman  society  was  even  more  deeply  affected.  Antiquity, 
however,  knew  not  syphilis. 

While  reading  the  description  of  the  various  neuroses 
just  given,  it  must  have  occurred  to  more  than  one  person 
to  ask,  whence  come  these  strange  affections  of  per- 
sonality? Functional  nervousness  is  not  a  disease  of 
invasion  like  diphtheria  or  tuberculosis  due  to  the  presence 
in  the  system  of  pathogenic  microbes.  It  is  not  a  malady 
caused  by  the  lesion  or  degeneration  of  vital  organs. 
Whence  then  come  these  sad  moods,  these  morbid  states 
of  mind,  this  melancholy,  this  irritable  weakness,  these 
unseasonable  fears  and  sad  transformations  of  character? 
These  are  questions  which  the  physician  who  deals  with 
such  disorders  has  to  face  every  day,  and  in  fulfilling  his 
calling  his  first  inquiry  is  usually  as  to  the  family  history 
of  the  patient.  In  other  words,  in  all  serious  nervous  dis- 
orders heredity  plays  a  very  important  part.  We  have 
been  so  greatly  cheered  during  the  past  few  years  with  the 
good  news  that  tuberculosis  is  not  an  inherited  disease 
that  a  good  many  persons  have  encouraged  themselves 
with  the  thought  that  this  may  also  be  true  of  all  other 
maladies,  but  it  is  not  true  of  nervous  diseases  whether 
they  are  functional  or  organic.  As  nervousness  in  all  its 
forms  is  a  very  general  condition,  rooted  in  constitution 
and  temperament,  the  conditions  which  lead  to  it  are  the 
more  likely  to  be  transmitted.  Moreau  of  Tours  tells  a 
sad  story  of  the  times  of  the  French  Revolution.  In  1 789, 
a  man,  terrified  by  the  first  revolutionary  excesses,  shut 
himself  up  in  his  room  which  thenceforth  he  refused  to 
leave  for  a  period  of  ten  years.  When  his  daughter 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS   (HEREDITY)        127 

reached  the  age  at  which  her  father  had  incarcerated  him- 
self, she  followed  his  example  although  the  Revolution 
was  then  over,  and  remained  a  prisoner  for  the  remainder 
of  her  life.  This  recital  strikingly  shows  us  how  nervous 
conditions  in  parents  repeat  themselves  in  children,  fre- 
quently in  a  severer  form.  Dr.  George  Carroll  Smith, 
of  Boston,  in  a  recent  paper1  analyzes  the  history  of 
one  hundred  neurasthenic  cases  taken  at  random  from  his 
own  practice,  and  of  these  he  finds  forty-three  "clearly 
hereditary"  and  fifty-seven  " acquired."  This  propor- 
tion is  probably  not  unusual,  although  it  is  to  be  remem- 
bered that  nervous  affections  are  transmitted  far  more 
frequently  than  is  true  mental  disease.  This  is  true  of 
epilepsy,  hysteria,  neurasthenia,  and  neuralgia,  alcohol- 
ism, a  morbid  impulse  to  suicide,  certain  criminal  ten- 
dencies, migraine,  chorea,  developing  in  late  adult  life, 
muscular  wasting  and  peculiar  forms  of  spinal  cord 
disease.  It  does  not  always  happen,  however,  that  these 
tendencies  reappear  in  children  in  the  exact  form  in  which 
they  appeared  in  the  parents.  On  the  contrary,  these 
affections,  like  insanity,  are  frequently  transformed  in 
transmission.  But  when  in  one  and  the  same  family  we 
find  a  constant  tendency  toward  nervous  disorders  appear- 
ing now  in  the  form  of  insanity,  now  as  epilepsy,  npw  as 
hysteria,  or  again  as  alcoholism,  neurasthenia,  or  im- 
becility, it  is  necessary  to  suppose  some  constant  and 
general  cause.2  Nor  need  the  variety  of  these  affections 
cause  us  any  surprise  when  we  remember  how  readily  one 

1  The  Annual  Address  before  the  Rhode  Island  Medical  Society, 
June  13,  1905,  and  published  in  the  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal^ 
August  15,  1907.  3  Mobius,  Nervositdt,  S.  28. 


128  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

nervous  condition  passes  into  another  and  how  constantly 
their  symptoms  run  together.  Frequently  the  recurrence 
is  delayed.  The  child  may  be  healthy  and  he  may  grow 
to  a  fine  and  vigorous  man,  but  at  last  the  fatal  hour  may 
strike  that  summons  him  to  follow  the  way  of  his  fathers. 
I  have  in  mind  a  family  in  which  the  father  after  leading 
an  exemplary  life  for  forty  years  suddenly  developed  a 
craving  for  alcohol  which  lasted  for  nearly  twenty  years 
when  he  entirely  ceased  drinking.  Four  fine  sons,  the 
two  elder  born  before  their  father's  downfall,  have  fol- 
lowed in  his  footsteps.  In  them  all  the  morbid  craving 
developed  comparatively  late,  after  thirty.  But  whereas 
the  father  reformed  and  is  still  alive,  two  of  his  sons  drank 
themselves  to  death,  one  is  paralyzed,  while  the  fourth 
has  completely  disappeared.  This  illustrates  one  of  the 
most  pathetic  aspects  of  the  transmission  of  nervous  ills. 
Disorders  which  were  only  temporary  in  parents  are  fre- 
quently permanent  in  children.  As  Mobius  puts  it,  a 
passing  delirium  in  a  parent  may  establish  inextinguish- 
able marks  of  degeneration  in  offspring.1  As  we  ascend 
the  course  of  a  degenerate  family  we  usually  come  to  a 
point  beyond  which  health  prevails.  In  other  words,  we 
can  trace  the  inherited  disease  directly  to  some  ancestor 
near  or  remote  with  whom  it  began.  Morel  gives  such  an 
example  in  the  history  of  a  family  in  which  the  great- 
grandfather was  a  drunkard  and  died  in  consequence  of 
excessive  indulgence.  His  son  who  was  also  an  inebriate 
died  insane,  the  grandson  though  temperate  was  a  hy- 
pochondriac with  murderous  instincts.  The  great-grand- 
child was  weak-minded  and  idiotic  and  with  him  the 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  32. 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (HEREDITY)       129 

succession  fortunately  ceased.  Terribly  significant  is  the 
appended  chart  of  Dr.  Doutrebente  in  which  it  is  shown 
how  the  sickness  of  the  father  reappeared  in  the  most 
manifold  forms  through  two  generations,  with  the  result 
that  a  numerous  family  was  extinguished  in  the  third 
generation. 

On  the  other  hand  it  ought  to  be  remembered  that  by 
no  means  all  the  children  of  nervously  diseased  parents 
inherit  a  diseased  nervous  system.  Some  are  perfectly 
healthy,  some  even  in  degenerate  families  are  men  of 
genius.  Frequently  the  defects  of  one  parent  are  offset 
and  almost  nullified  by  the  excellence  of  the  other.  Hence 
the  results  are  apt  to  be  far  more  serious  when  both  parents 
are  nervously  affected.  Again,  when  undesirable  and 
even  dangerous  tendencies  are  plainly  present  in  children 
their  development  can  often  be  checked  by  a  wise  training 
and  by  a  wholesome  mode  of  life.  Man  is  not  merely  the 
victim. of  fate,  the  product  of  hereditary  influences  over 
which  he  has  no  control,  he  is  also  a  moral  being  endowed 
with  a  will  which  in  innumerable  splendid  instances  has 
resisted  destructive  tendencies  and  vanquished  them. 
Environment  also  counts  for  much.  In  general  the 
probability  of  transmission,  and  the  severity  of  the  trans- 
mitted disease,  depends  upon  the  severity  of  the  disease  or 
degeneration  in  the  parents.  (Mobius.)  Yet  it  frequently 
happens  especially  in  mental  diseases  that  the  malady  is 
not  propagated  directly  from  father  to  son.  Very  often 
the  affection  appears  in  one  generation  in  the  aunt  or 
uncle,  and  the  next  in  the  nephew  or  niece,  or  the  disease 
may  skip  one  or  more  generations  and  reappear  in  a  sub- 
sequent one.  This  shows  once  more  how  exceedingly 


130 


RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 
FAMILY  HISTORY 


First 
Generation 

Second  Generation. 

Third  Generation. 

Fourth 
Generation. 

* 

i.   Child     died    sud- 

£     -2 

denly  in  1  6th  year. 

*      1 

s    1 

3.  Child     died    sud- 
denly in  1  8th  year. 

Extinct. 

Extinct. 

.2      * 

3.   Child    died     sud- 

"8    * 

denly  in  1  5th  year 

=3      "3 

. 

i.  Child  died  early. 

" 

B          — 

a.       "        "        " 

•• 

i   i 

3-       "        "       " 

ii 

i  * 

4.   Oldest  daughter 

4- 

ii 
ii 

i  ? 

hypochondriacal, 
excitable,     relig- 
ious scruples. 

S- 
6.  [Married,  all  very  intelligent, 
7.  {      misshapen     ears.       Had 
8.  I     children  who  died  early. 

« 

9.  Boy,  eccentric  and  dissipated. 

M 

^  ^ 

-5        - 

10.  Boy  who   underwent  three 

V 

"a   2   9 

attacks  of  temporary  delirium. 

M 

5.  Mentally    weak 

•3  i  § 

•3 
5*0.3 

daughter,     in     an 
asylum   from  aoth 

Extinct. 

N 

o 

"        "*' 

year. 

6.  Imbecile  daughter. 

Imbecile   child,  hermaphrodite. 

M 

E^       o 

Intelligent  boy,  died  of  apoplexy 

•°       S. 

«•»              "> 

at  24. 

II 

0           *> 
a         v 

•3      3 

7.  Mrs.     L.     delu- 

Imbecile boy,  passionate,  klep- 
tomaniac. 

II 

*       S 

sions  of  persecu- 
tion —  suicide. 

Boy,  artist,  dissipated,  lively,  pe- 
culiar. 

M 

a    "S 

Boy,  nervously  weak,  died  in  an 

1    « 

attack  of  mania. 

M 

Sr 

f         1 

8.   Weak-minded  boy. 

Girl,  degenerate. 

M 

1          S 

9.   Boy,    distrustful, 

8 

1"        S 

>         t> 

hypochondriacal, 
refused  to  live  with 

•  Extinct. 

M 

J3 

S         0 

his  wife. 

1    a 

10.   Hypochondriacal 

tvnn 

3alf  imbecile. 

M 

Doy. 

Dr.  Doutrebente,  quoted  by  Mobius,  p.  41. 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (HEREDITY)        131 

general  and  diffuse  nervous  disorders  are  apt  to  be.  In 
the  former  case  (aunt  or  uncle)  it  is  necessary  to  ascend 
higher  to  find  the  origin  of  the  disease. 

One  of  the  causes  of  inherited  nervous  diseases  is  inter- 
marriage. When  a  morbid  taint  appears  in  a  family  it 
can  be  checked  and  eventually  extinguished  by  the  con- 
stant infusion  of  fresh  and  healthy  blood.  But  when  near 
relatives  marry,  both  of  whom  carry  within  them  the 
same  morbid  germs,  the  obvious  result  is  accentuation 
of  the  family  weakness.  Royal  and  noble  families  among 
which  intermarriages  are  frequent  are  constantly  threat- 
ened with  degeneration,  insanity  and  extinction  through 
the  operation  of  this  law.  (Niebuhr,  Esquirol,  Spurz- 
heim,  Quatref rages,  M5bius.)  The  Jews  alone  seem  to 
be  unaffected  by  consanguineous  marriage.  Incompati- 
bility between  parents,  lack  of  sympathy  and  affection, 
are  also  unfavorable  to  the  production  of  sound  and 
vigorous  offspring.  On  this  subject  Schopenhauer's  ob- 
servations l  are  very  interesting.  Children  sprung  from 
such  unions,  he  affirms,  are  apt  to  be  sad  and  inhar- 
monious beings. 

These,  however,  are  secondary  causes.  They  teach  us 
the  solemn  lesson  that  diseased  nervous  conditions  are 
transmitted,  but  they  cannot  tell  us  how  such  conditions 
are  acquired,  or  how  nervousness  came  into  the  world. 
To  learn  this  lesson  we  must  turn  to  the  life  history  of  the 
individual  and  trace  the  effect  of  environment  upon  the 
nervous  system,  but  before  we  do  this  it  is  well  to  remind 
ourselves  once  more  of  the  effect  of  our  acts  and  states 
upon  our  children.  In  the  moral  world  the  law  of  causa- 

i  Works,  Vol.  Ill,  S.  591  ff. 


132  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

tion  prevails  with  the  same  inexorable  certainty  that 
characterizes  its  action  in  the  physical  world.  Nervous 
and  moral  conditions  are  transmitted  and  they  frequently 
become  graver  in  the  process  of  time.  The  severest  and 
most  incurable  forms  of  nervous  disease  are  usually  those 
which  are  attended  by  a  bad  family  history.  Many 
families  bear  in  the  persons  of  the  majority  of  their  mem- 
bers the  stigmata  of  moral  and  physical  degeneracy. 
From  this  point  of  view,  the  ancient  doctrine  that  the 
sins  of  the  fathers  are  visited  on  the  children  unto  the 
third  and  fourth  generation  is  true  to  the  letter,  for  in 
the  third  or  fourth  generation  such  heavily  burdened 
families  almost  in  variably  are  extinguished.  Nature,  which 
apparently  hates  abnormality,  sees  to  it  that  the  abnormal 
and  the  degenerate  do  not  propagate  their  degeneracy 
indefinitely  upon  this  earth.  We  shall  see,  however,  that 
by  no  means  all  nervous  disorders  are  the  result  of  moral 
delinquency.  Many  of  them  are  imposed  upon  us  by 
conditions  of  life  over  which  we  have  practically  no  con- 
trol. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS   (ENVIRONMENT) 

NERVOUSNESS  in  its  manifold  forms  is  often  called  a 
disease  of  civilization.  "Without  civilization  there  can 
be  no  nervousness ;  there  is  no  race,  no  climate,  no  environ- 
ment that  can  make  nervousness  and  nervous  disease 
possible  and  common,  save  when  reinforced  by  man's 
work  and  worry  and  indoor  life." 1  While  there  is  a  large 
element  of  truth  in  this  saying,  it  is  certain  that  the  severer 
forms  of  nervous  disease,  epilepsy,  melancholia,  mania, 
and  idiocy,  are  and  have  been  well  known  to  barbaric  and 
savage  life.  Civilization  has  unquestionably  enhanced 
longevity,  yet  the  vaster  and  the  more  complex  the  en- 
vironment to  which  we  must  adjust  ourselves,  the  greater 
are  the  demands  made  upon  our  nervous  system.  In 
this  sense  nervousness  is  the  child  of  civilization,  and  the 
more  Me  demands  of  us  the  more  nervousness  is  destined 
to  spread  both  by  the  creation  of  new  types  and  by  the 
transmission  of  old  ones.  Unless  we  find  some  better 
means  than  we  possess  at  present  to  calm  and  simplify 
our  lives,  the  end  of  our  civilization  is  in  sight,  for  we 
cannot  continue  to  use  up  our  forces  faster  than  those 
forces  are  generated.  Humanity,  however,  has  a  wonder- 
ful capacity  for  renewing  itself.  When  the  disease  be- 
comes pressing  the  cure  comes.  In  this  case  the  relief 

1  Beard,  American  Nervousness,  Putnam's,  1881,  p.  193. 


134  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

is  already  in  sight.  It  will  come  in  the  discovery  and  use 
of  those  inexhaustible  subconscious  powers  which  have 
their  roots  in  the  Infinite.  As  a  runner  exhausts  his 
"first  wind"  and  then  taps  a  new  source  of  energy  which 
carries  him  indefinitely  on,  so  humanity  will  not  falter  in 
its  race.  Soon  it  will  learn  the  great  lesson  of  "hitching 
its  wagon  to  a  star,"  and  then  it  will  no  longer  faint  and 
stagger  on  its  way  as  it  does  now  while  it  childishly  insists 
on  carrying  its  burden  on  the  weak  shoulders  of  flesh. 
Moreover  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  work  seldom  injures, 
it  is  worry  which  undermines  the  health.  Much  has 
been  written  on  this  subject  of  the  highest  value  by  the 
so-called  Metaphysical  School,  to  which  I  am  glad  at  last 
to  pay  my  respects.1  Here  I  shall  only  attempt  to  review 
some  of  the  prevailing  conditions  of  our  social  and  moral 
life  which  act  unfavorably  upon  our  nervous  system. 

Among  all  the  predisposing  causes  of  nervousness,  the 
first  place  must  be  assigned  to  drunkenness.  No  other 
source  of  mental  and  nervous  disease  can  be  pointed  to 
with  anything  like  the  same  certainty.  Alcoholic  poison- 
ing is  believed  by  many  eminent  physiologists  to  infect 
the  reproductive  germs,  in  opposition  to  Weissmann's 
theory  which  certainly  finds  no  support  in  the  history  of 
nervous  disease.  Von  Bunge,  arguing  this  question,  calls 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  daughters  of  drunkards  are 
seldom  able  to  nurse  their  babies,  their  milk  being  de- 
ficient in  quantity  and  in  nourishing  elements.  Be  this 

1 1  allude  to  such  writers  as,  Mr.  Henry  Wood,  Mr.  Charles  Brodie 
Patterson,  Mr.  Horatio  Dunn,  Mr.  Ralph  Waldo  Trine,  Mr.  Crane, 
and  also  to  Mr.  Horace  Fletcher,  Miss  Anna  Payson  Call,  Mr.  Jordan 
and  many  others. 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)       135 

as  it  may,  it  is  certain  that  the  posterity  of  drunkards 
suffers  to  an  almost  incredible  extent  from  the  milder  and 
the  severer  forms  of  mental  and  nervous  disease.  For 
this  reason  the  great  neurologists,  e.g.,  Forel,  Mobius,  and 
Weir  Mitchell,  have  been  great  advocates  of  temperance. 
Mobius  goes  so  far  as  to  say,  "In  my  opinion  the  wide- 
spread conditions  of  weakness  which  we  call  nervousness, 
neurasthenia,  etc.,  in  the  majority  of  cases  are  due  to  the 
intemperate  habits  of  parents.  People  are  apt  to  think 
that  the  strenuousness  of  life,  the  demands  of  business 
and  other  influences,  create  nervous  weakness.  But  it 
is  very  probable  that  the  telephone,  railroads,  and  the  de- 
mands of  business  have  no  injurious  effect  upon  well 
people.  They  may  rack  their  nerves  for  awhile,  but  they 
certainly  do  not  create  the  conditions  which  we  encounter 
daily  in  our  office  hours.  Examination  reveals  the  fact 
that  the  majority  of  these  patients  have  never  been  really 
well,  that  their  maladies  began  in  childhood." *  Of  course 
the  more  seriously  the  father  has  injured  his  brain  and 
nervous  system  through  alcoholic  indulgence,  the  more 
serious  the  disorders  he  is  likely  to  bequeath  to  his  chil- 
dren. But  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  imagine  that 
the  habits  of  so-called  moderate  drinkers  have  no  effect 
on  posterity.  To  this  cause  as  much  as  to  any  other  is 
due  the  short  life  of  so  many  prosperous  American  families, 
which  frequently  become  extinct  in  the  third  or  fourth 
generation.  The  founder  of  the  family's  affluence  makes 
his  way  by  intelligence,  sobriety,  and  hard  work,  but  he 
desires  a  different  life  for  his  son  whom  he  brings  up  in 
luxury  and  pleasure.  The  son  spends  his  time  in  enjoy- 
i  Op.  tit.,  pp.  44-5. 


136  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

ing  and  perhaps  dissipating  what  his  father  earned  and 
he  frequently  bequeaths  a  diminished  fortune  and  an 
exhausted  nervous  system  to  his  children.  During  the 
past  ten  years,  thanks  to  the  influence  of  our  fine  boys' 
schools  and  to  the  example  of  our  great  President,  there 
has  been  a  marked  improvement  in  the  ideals  of  our  young 
men  who  are  doomed  to  wealth.  But  this  melancholy 
drama  has  been  enacted  so  often  as  to  be  typical  of  a  cer- 
tain phase  of  American  life.  Luxury  tears  down  the 
house  which  self-denial  has  built.  Nor  is  this  spectacle 
peculiar  to  America.  P.  Buchner  in  his  interesting  ex- 
amination of  the  conditions  of  life  in  Hamburg  comes 
to  the  same  conclusion.  He  says:  "Generally  the  third 
generation  (of  affluent  families)  sinks  back  into  the  great 
impoverished  mass  out  of  which  the  founder  of  a  com- 
mercial house  arose.  Hence  there  are  few  Hamburg 
families  which  have  been  able  to  maintain  themselves 
for  more  than  a  hundred  years.  Of  the  old  patrician 
families  which  established  the  Hanseatic  League,  not  one 
remains  to-day.  Only  new  names  figure  on  the  Ham- 
burg exchange."  1 

One  of  the  most  ominous  signs  of  the  times  is  the  large 
amount  of  alcohol  consumed  by  business  men,  not  for 
pleasure,  but  as  a  stimulus  to  flagging  powers  or  to 
stimulate  digestion.  In  this  way  a  man  who  regards 
himself  as  quite  temperate  will  consume  from  four  to  six 
cocktails  or  other  alcoholic  beverages  daily  without  sus- 
pecting that  he  is  undermining  his  nervous  system  or 
that  of  his  children.  Yet  we  are  constantly  confronted 

1  Der  Hamburgen  Handel,  Grenzboten  LXIII,  15,  5,  80.  Quoted  by 
Mobius. 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)       137 

with  defective  and  hysterical  boys  and  girls  who  owe 
their  enfeebled  constitutions  in  no  slight  degree  to  their 
father's  habit  of  moderate  but  constant  tippling.  Ner- 
vousness is  regarded  as  peculiarly  a  disease  of  girls  and 
women,  but  a  nervous  system  which  requires  frequent 
alcoholic  stimulation  hi  order  to  function  is  certainly 
diseased.  No  nervousness  is  worse  than  alcoholic  ner- 
vousness, and  a  man  who  can  maintain  himself  only  with 
the  assistance  of  alcohol  will  not  maintain  himself  long. 
Unfortunately,  if  he  has  children  he  will  not  suffer  alone. 
Our  civilization,  as  Mobius  remarks,  is  built  on  alcohol, 
and  as  the  flood  of  alcohol  rises  the  prevalence  of  neurotic 
weakness  rises  with  it.1  To  this  rule  as  to  all  other  gen- 
eralizations on  mankind,  the  Jews  form  an  exception, 
as  they  are  both  sober  and  nervous.  On  the  other  hand, 
Americans  on  account  of  their  peculiarly  nervous  tem- 
perament are  less  able  to  resist  alcoholic  poisoning  than 
other  peoples. 

After  alcoholism  perhaps  the  most  general  cause  of 
nervous  affection  is  venereal  disease  and  the  moral  and 
physical  consequences  of  illicit  sexual  relations.  The 
memorial  presented  to  the  diocesan  convention  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  Massachusetts  in  1907  on  the  state 
of  morals  reveals  the  alarming  extent  to  which  virtuous 
married  women  are  inoculated  with  venereal  disease  by 
their  husbands,  and  our  hospital  reports  tell  the  same 
story.  From  these  infected  unions  when  they  are  not 

1  It  is  useless  to  talk  of  more  temperate  habits  while  the  drink  bill  of 
the  nation  steadily  rises,  dwarfing  the  expenditure  for  the  necessities 
of  life.  Someone  must  consume  all  the  liquor  brewed  and  distilled  in 
this  country. 


138  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

sterile  springs  a  race  of  infirm,  debilitated  children  who 
frequently  bear  on  the  body  and  soul  the  imprint  of  their 
father's  sins.  Apart  from  its  corroding  action  on  the 
mucous  membranes,  the  epidermis,  and  the  bones,  the 
poison  of  syphilis  not  infrequently  attacks  the  brain,  the 
spinal  cord  and  the  nerves.  Even  those  from  whose 
systems  the  actual  virus  of  syphilis  has  been  eliminated 
continue  to  suffer  from  general  debility  and  from  a  ner- 
vous dread  of  a  fresh  outbreak  of  the  disease. 

As  the  conditions  of  life  grow  more  complex  and  the 
craving  for  luxurious  living  becomes  more  universal, 
marriage  becomes  more  difficult  and  tends  constantly 
to  be  postponed  to  a  later  period  of  life.  The  result  of 
this  is  a  constant  increase  of  sexual  vice.  Prostitution  is 
the  cancer  of  our  civilization,  and  apparently  it  is  insepar- 
able from  it.  It  is  the  penalty  we  pay  for  our  ideal  of 
monogamy,  which  in  the  present  state  of  humanity  can 
never  be  perfectly  realized.  The  result  is  the  existence 
of  a  large  class  of  sad  and  degenerate  beings  which  polyg- 
amous countries  hardly  know,  a  class  branded  by  every 
infamy,  preyed  upon  by  every  brutal  passion  and  by  the 
foulest  disease.  That  women  of  this  class  suffer  from 
every  form  of  nervous,  mental,  and  moral  disease,  that 
their  lives  are  short  and  that  they  are  frequently  shortened 
by  suicide,  goes  without  saying.  No  human  being  suffers 
so  disproportionately  for  human  frailty  as  the  fallen 
woman. 

Apart  from  recognized  prostitution,  many  tendencies 
of  contemporary  society  encourage  temporary  and  irre- 
sponsible unions  to  an  extent  hitherto  unknown  in  our 
American  life.  Among  these  tendencies  I  should  include 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)        139 

the  increasing  difficulty  of  marriage  and  the  frequency 
of  divorce,  the  loss  of  religious  faith  with  its  attending 
relaxation  of  ethical  standards,  the  increasing  love  of 
pleasure,  and  above  all  the  industrial  conditions  as  they 
affect  woman.  Girls  and  young  women  who  were  formerly 
brought  up  in  the  privacy  of  the  home  and  under  parental 
control  are  now  found  in  large  stores  and  factories,  and 
in  offices  where,  freed  from  all  moral  restraint,  they  work 
side  by  side  with  men,  often  for  wages  which  barely  suffice 
for  subsistence.  The  result  is  an  immense  increase  in 
irregular  or  temporary  sexual  connections.  Nor  do  I 
imagine  for  a  moment  that  such  relations  are  peculiar 
to  the  working  classes.  One  of  the  revelations  of  our 
work  has  been  the  large  number  of  men  and  women, 
frequently  of  the  highest  station,  who  are  suffering  from 
disturbances  originating  in  the  sexual  life. 

The  effects  of  a  "double  life"  upon  the  nervous  system 
are  unmistakable.  "He  who  lives  more  lives  than  one, 
More  deaths  than  one  must  die,"  says  Oscar  Wilde. 
Probably  women,  who  have  more  at  stake  and  whose 
moral  sensibility  is  greater,  suffer  more  from  this  cause 
than  men.  The  intense  excitement  which  attends  such 
experiences,  the  remorse  they  frequently  inspire,  the 
burden  of  a  guilty  conscience,  the  element  of  falsehood 
and  secrecy  which  they  introduce  into  life,  fear  of  dis- 
covery, dread  of  consequences,  and  the  horror  which 
attends  the  discovery  of  pregnancy  all  react  powerfully 
upon  the  nervous  system  and  they  may  lead  to  insanity. 
Goethe  has  depicted  the  depth  of  woe  and  guilt  into  which 
an  innocent  girl  may  be  plunged  through  her  affections, 
and  in  Margaret's  madness  and  death  he  has  given  the 


1 40  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

tragic  ending  of  these  crooked  paths.  Balzac  in  the 
wonderful  trilogy  which  describes  the  utter  ruin  of  Lucien 
de  Rubempre',  and  in  his  terrible  Cousine  Bette,  has  laid 
an  even  more  unsparing  finger  upon  this  open  sore  of  our 
civilization.  Frequently  more  dangerous  than  the  moral 
emotions  I  have  mentioned  is  the  deep-rooted  dissociation 
of  personality  which  results  from  the  attempt  to  lead  two 
lives.  On  the  other  hand  it  ought  to  be  remembered 
that  sexual  perversions  and  outbreaks  are  often  the  effect 
and  not  the  cause  of  nervous  conditions.  The  first  duty 
of  one  so  affected  is  to  seek  the  advice  and  assistance  of 
an  experienced  neurologist,  and  to  avoid  as  he  would  the 
devil  those  dangerous  so-called  "specialists"  who  batten 
upon  sexual  vice  and  upon  the  morbid  fears  of  their  vic- 
tims. Of  sexual  perversions  I  shall  not  speak  except  to 
say  that  they  are  recognized  forms  of  mental  and  nervous 
disease  which  can  frequently  be  removed  by  suggestion. 
One  of  the  most  certain  causes  of  nervousness  is  the 
overtaxing  of  the  mental  powers  in  childhood.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  human  brain  at  birth  is  quite  embryonic. 
Many  of  the  nerve  fibers  have  not  received  their  medul- 
lary sheaths,  the  higher  centers  of  speech,  of  word  and 
visual  memory,  are  not  yet  formed.  The  brain  is  not  yet 
organized  by  habit.1  In  short  the  most  important  work 
of  life  is  performed  during  the  first  six  years.  Man  is 
born  with  a  brain  and  nervous  system  differing  but  slightly 
from  that  of  the  anthropoid  apes,  but  the  modifications 
which  take  place  in  the  former  during  these  years  separate 

1  See  e.g.  Thomson's  exceedingly  instructive  chapters,  "The  Faculty 
of  Speech,"  "Nervous  System  Evolution,"  and  "The  Brain  and  Per- 
^onality."  Op.  cit.,  p.  75  ff. 


141 

him  from  the  animal  kingdom  as  a  star  is  separate  from 
the  earth  (Thomson).  Every  day  is  a  voyage  of  discovery 
into  an  unknown  world.  The  child's  powers  of  observa- 
tion, of  attention  and  of  memory  are  taxed  to  a  degree 
which  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  comprehend,  and  these 
difficult  feats  of  memory,  of  imitation,  of  co-ordination 
and  self-direction  are  performed  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  organs  which  are  yet  imperfect,  which  are 
easily  exhausted,  and  which  require  long  and  frequent 
periods  of  complete  repose.  In  the  face  of  these  facts 
it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  during  these  tender 
years  no  additional  burdens  ought  to  be  imposed,  unless 
it  be  the  acquisition  of  a  second  language  which  can  then 
be  acquired  with  the  least  difficulty.  Above  all  things, 
the  child's  nervous  system  ought  to  be  protected  from  all 
shocks  and  unnecessary  stimulation.  Those  who  care 
for  it  should  be  mild  and  free  from  nervousness.  During 
this  period  an  excess  of  mental  application  not  only 
injures  the  brain,  but  checks  growth  and  induces  morbid 
precocities,  e.g.,  premature  sexual  development  (M6bius). 
The  beginning  of  school  life,  therefore,  before  the  age 
of  seven  or  eight  is  neither  desirable,  nor  in  the  long  run 
profitable.  At  an  earlier  period,  if  any  instruction  beyond 
normal  development  and  the  moral  training  of  the  home 
be  thought  necessary,  the  Kindergarten  which  trains  the 
senses  and  which  teaches  useful  lessons  without  fatiguing 
the  attention  is  the  best  school  for  the  young  child.  In 
fact  it  is  the  concentration  of  attention  which  is  most 
difficult  to  a  child.  The  child's  powers  of  observation 
and  of  imitation  are  keen,  but  the  attention  is  very  volatile, 
and  the  attempt  to  fix  the  mind  for  any  length  of  time  on 


I42  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

one  thing  produces  a  sense  of  fatigue  which  is  the  chief 
cause  of  the  child's  aversion  to  school  and  study. 

The  American  school  system  has  often  been  com- 
pared with  the  German  to  the  distinct  detriment  of  the 
former  in  respect  to  thoroughness  and  comprehensiveness 
and  as  regards  sound  scientific  method.  No  doubt  the 
principles  of  pedagogics  have  been  studied  and  applied 
in  Germany  more  successfully  than  elsewhere,  and  it  is 
certain  that  German  school-teachers  as  a  class  are  far 
more  learned  than  ours,  but  on  the  other  hand  our 
American  schools  are  not  responsible  for  the  wrecking  of 
nervous  systems,  the  almost  universal  defects  of  vision, 
and  the  not  infrequent  suicides  of  children  which  are 
produced  by  the  severity  of  the  German  school  system, 
against  which  German  physicians  and  men  of  science 
continually  protest.  The  educational  problems  pre- 
sented in  the  two  countries  are  very  different.  The  Ger- 
man school  undertakes  the  training  of  a  homogeneous 
people  in  a  country  where  specialized  knowledge  is  the 
chief  avenue  to  success.  Upon  the  American  school  is 
laid  the  duty  and  responsibility  of  transforming  the  off- 
spring of  the  most  diverse  races  into  American  citizens, 
and  of  preparing  its  pupils  for  a  life  in  which  talent,  moral 
character,  and  initiative  play  a  larger  part  than  learning. 
The  first  of  these  tasks  it  performs  in  a  manner  above  all 
praise.  No  aspect  of  our  civilization  is  more  remarkable 
than  our  power  of  assimilating  the  various  peoples  of  the 
earth  and  of  transforming  them  into  good  and  enthu- 
siastic Americans  full  of  love  for  our  institutions.  This 
miracle  is  performed  for  the  most  part  by  our  public 
schools,  which  of  late  years  have  taken  a  far  more  liberal 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)       143 

view  of  their  moral  and  social  duties  and  opportunities. 
Studies  of  public  school  life  like  those  of  Myra  Kelly  are 
full  of  interest  from  this  point  of  view. 

One  injurious  element  in  the  early  life  of  our  rich 
children  is  its  extreme  complexity.  The  young  children 
of  well-to-do  people  have  as  many  engagements  as  their 
fathers  and  mothers.  As  soon  as  one  task  is  ended  they 
are  hurried  to  another.  Then  come  children's  parties, 
dances,  rich  food,  late  hours,  etc.  All  this  excitement 
and  confusion  and  distraction  of  attention  unquestionably 
react  injuriously  upon  the  nervous  system  and  upon 
character.  For  this  reason  it  is  often  best  for  boys  to 
leave  homes  where  there  is  really  no  place  for  them  and 
to  enter  schools  where  life  is  simple  and  wholesome  and 
where  they  will  be  thrown  under  the  influence  of  manly 
men.  As  humanity  rises  higher  the  labors  imposed  upon 
youth  become  more  severe,  but  it  is  a  poor  preparation 
for  life  to  overtax  and  cripple  these  faculties  and  powers 
on  which  our  happiness  and  our  usefulness  depend. 

A  frequent  source  of  nervous  debility  in  boys,  less  fre- 
quently in  girls,  is  the  habit  of  self-abuse,  a  vice  that  is 
shared  with  mankind  by  dogs  and  monkeys.  Pernicious 
as  are  the  effects  of  this  wide-spread  evil  on  body  and  mind, 
they  are  by  no  means  so  terrible  as  interested  and  mer- 
cenary persons  pretend.  Victims  of  this  sad  habit  should 
know  the  truth  in  regard  to  it,  for  the  morbid  apprehen- 
sion and  fears  created  by  the  wilful  misrepresentations  of 
charlatans  often  produce  in  them  nervous  conditions 
which  are  more  harmful  than  the  effects  of  the  vice  itself. 
The  "Incurable  spinal  disease"  of  which  one  hears 
never  proceeds  from  this  cause  (Mobius),  weak-minded- 


144  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

ness  and  imbecility  very  rarely.  On  the  other  hand  no 
one  can  deny  that  serious  moral  and  nervous  affections 
follow  the  habitual  practice  of  masturbation,  and  these 
are  more  serious  in  early  life,  and  when,  as  is  often  the 
case,  the  victim  is  temporarily  nervous  and  delicate.  The 
physical  symptoms  are  weakness,  pallor  and  backache, 
and  general  debility.  The  effects  on  the  brain  and  ner- 
vous system  are  more  serious.  They  may  dull  the  in- 
tellect, weaken  the  memory  and  the  affections,  produce 
listlessness,  apathy,  moroseness  and  morbid  irritability, 
in  short  a  general  perversion  of  character.  This  habit 
may  arise  through  a  variety  of  causes,  some  of  which  are 
in  themselves  morbid.  Parents  owe  it  to  their  children, 
especially  to  their  boys,  to  be  sincere  with  them  on  these 
subjects.  They  may  take  it  for  granted  that  their  reti- 
cence only  exposes  their  children  to  revelations  from 
impure  sources.  There  is  something  morbid  and  base  in 
our  attitude  toward  the  great  mysteries  of  life  which  in 
themselves  are  pure  and  wonderful.  Truth  can  never 
harm  us.  It  is  the  lie  long  meditated  in  secret  that  cor- 
rupts us.  I  have  heard  many  a  young  man  who  had 
fallen  low  exclaim,  "  If  my  father  had  only  told  me  when  I 
was  a  boy."  In  conclusion  I  would  say  that  the  wide- 
spread notion  that  sexual  activity  is  necessary  to  the 
health  of  man  at  any  age  is  a  fallacy.  Balzac,  who 
knew  human  nature  as  well  as  another,  speaks  frequently 
of  the  great  surplus  of  moral  and  physical  power  possessed 
by  virgins.  Neither  are  occasional  losses  to  be  regarded 
as  dangerous  or  as  indications  of  disease  provided  they 
are  not  too  frequent.  These,  however,  and  the  habit  of 
masturbation  and  in  general  a  tendency  to  impure  and 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)       145 

evil  thoughts  can  in  the  majority  of  cases  be  removed  by 
suggestion,  and  parents  whose  children  are  so  afflicted 
ought  not  to  hesitate  to  employ  it. 

We  come  now  to  the  more  general  causes  of  nervous- 
ness in  our  environment  and  these  may  almost  be  said  to 
be  coextensive  with  our  civilization.  The  well-nigh  uni- 
versal conditions  of  nervous  weakness  which  confront  us 
on  every  hand  proclaim  the  fact  that  life  as  it  is  organized 
at  present  is  too  difficult  for  us.  The  brain  and  nervous 
system  of  man  are  capable  of  responding  to  an  incalculable 
yet  limited  variety  of  stimulation,  and  it  begins  to  look 
as  if  for  us  the  limit  had  been  reached  and  in  many  cases 
exceeded.  This  is  the  situation  which  confronts  us  to- 
day, and  theoretically  two  courses  are  possible;  either  the 
reduction  of  the  nervous  tension  under  which  we  are 
living,  or  an  increase  of  moral  and  nervous  energy  to  meet 
life's  demands.  Accordingly  Pastor  Wagner  and  others 
have  issued  a  powerful  appeal  for  the  Simple  Life,  but 
just  as  these  lessons  seemed  likely  to  be  heeded,  our 
President  drowned  their  gentle  voices  with  his  loud 
roar  for  the  Strenuous  Life,  and  it  is  easy  to  see  in  which 
direction  the  tide  is  turning.  Here,  however,  we  are  not 
concerned  with  remedies  but  with  symptoms. 

The  health  and  well-being  of  any  animal  organism 
depends  upon  its  adjustment  to  its  environment.  After 
this  adjustment  is  made,  it  perpetuates  itself  by  the  trans- 
mission of  acquired  faculties.  A  kind  of  equilibrium  is 
established  between  the  nervous  system  and  the  normal 
demands  made  upon  it,  which  permits  the  formation  of 
habits  and  innumerable  unconscious  acts.  But  every 
change  of  environment  disturbs  this  equilibrium  and 


146  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

demands  new  adjustments  in  the  course  of  which  innu- 
merable individuals  and  sometimes  whole  species  perish. 
During  the  past  century  the  general  conditions  of  human 
life  have  changed  more  profoundly  than  during  any  corre- 
sponding period  since  the  dawn  of  civilization,  and  one 
general  cause  of  the  prevailing  nervous  irritability  which 
we  observe  at  present  is  the  heavy  task  imposed  upon  the 
nervous  system  in  adjusting  itself  to  a  new  environment 
and  in  meeting  new  demands. 

But  our  environment  has  not  merely  changed,  it  has 
become  more  complex.  It  is  true  the  world  presents  far 
fewer  natural  obstacles  to  us  than  it  presented  to  our 
forefathers.  The  difficulty  of  maintaining  this  country 
in  peace  and  affluence  is  slight  in  comparison  with  the' 
difficulty  of  wresting  it  from  stubborn  Nature  and  from 
implacable  savages.  Our  present  embarrassments  would 
not  seem  serious  to  a  generation  which  had  beheld  our 
soil  drenched  with  the  blood  of  citizens.  And  yet  the 
critical  hour  for  every  nation  occurs  after  its  struggle  with 
Nature  and  for  its  own  existence  ceases  to  be  pressing. 
Man  carries  his  conquest  of  the  world  to  a  certain  point' 
he  overcomes  its  hard  obstacles,  but  its  soft  seductions 
usually  in  the  end  overcome  him.  Our  fathers  wrestled 
against  flesh  and  blood  and  to  virile  men  this  struggle 
is  the  easiest.  We  must  wrestle  against  effeminating 
luxury,  against  corrupting  materialism,  against  our  own 
debilitated  nervous  systems,  against  the  vastest  doubts 
which  have  ever  dismayed  the  minds  of  men,  against  the 
very  richness  and  complexity  of  the  life  we  have  inherited. 
Perhaps  never,  except  in  the  years  following  the  birth  of 
Christ,  has  the  world  aged  so  perceptibly  as  during  the 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)      147 

century  just  ended.  As  we  look  back  to  the  lives  of  our 
fathers  and  grandfathers,  what  charms  us  most  is  their 
simplicity,  and  as  we  look  forward  to  our  own  lives,  what 
terrifies  us  most  is  their  complexity,  and  this  complexity 
no  Pastor  Wagner  can  reduce.  Knowledge  has  become 
so  vast  that  the  human  brain  can  no  longer  contain  a 
fraction  of  what  a  man  may  legitimately  desire  to  know, 
and  with  this  infinite  expansion  of  knowledge,  the  old 
faith,  which  did  not  rest  on  knowledge  but  largely  on 
ignorance,  becomes  more  difficult.  Every  path  of  knowl- 
edge ends  in  doubt.  We  build  our  theories  and  our  ex- 
planations of  things  up  to  the  skies,  yet  over  every  explana- 
tion towers  a  gigantic  question-mark.  Who  is  able  to 
follow  all  these  paths  through  doubt  to  final  reconciliation 
and  peace?  What  eye  but  the  eye  of  omniscience  can 
trace  all  the  infinite  radii  of  truth  to  the  point  where  they 
converge  in  God? 

If  the  world  of  thought  has  become  too  great  for  our 
minds  to  grasp,  the  life  we  lead  threatens  to  become  too 
manifold  in  its  interests,  too  exacting  in  its  demands,  for  our 
weak  organisms.  In  the  early  deaths  and  suicides  of  many 
of  our  ablest  men,  in  the  alarming  increase  of  insanity  and 
nervousness,  in  the  diminishing  and  vanishing  offspring 
of  the  cultured  classes,  in  the  general  use  of  alcoholic 
stimulants  and  dangerous  drugs,  we  already  see  a  limit 
set  to  the  dissipation  of  man's  energies.  These  are  the 
conditions  under  which  life  presents  itself  to  the  more 
favored  classes.  The  less  favored  suffer  from  grievances 
which  cry  louder  to  Heaven.  Without  an  uncharitable 
thought  we  may  admit  that  the  same  system  which  has 
made  one  portion  of  society  rich  has  made  a  large  portion 


1 48  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

poor.  One  of  the  problems,  therefore,  with  which  the 
twentieth  century  is  confronted  is  the  problem  of  human 
happiness.  It  has  taken  us  a  long  time  to  admit  that 
there  is  such  a  problem,  or  if  there  be  such  a  one  that  there 
is  a  possibility  of  its  solution.  But  we  are  slowly  learning 
that  it  is  impossible  for  anyone  to  be  happy  in  this  world 
so  long  as  he  is  obliged  to  lower  his  eyes  in  the  presence 
of  the  misery  of  his  fellow  men.  The  noble  already  per- 
ceive that  the  highest  and  most  satisfactory  use  which 
can  be  made  of  wealth  is  to  expend  it  during  life  in  the 
improvement  of  man.  After  a  while  we  shall  learn  that 
it  is  better  to  leave  our  children  pure  examples  and  high 
ideals  than  abnormal  fortunes.  Fathers  who  have  seen 
the  melancholy  experiment  tried  sufficiently  often  will 
not  be  anxious  to  corrupt  and  ruin  their  sons  by  leaving 
them  too  rich. 

The  whole  tendency  of  the  age  in  which  we  live  may 
be  summed  up  in  two  words,  mechanical  and  material. 
We  have  not  succeeded  in  making  life  more  beautiful, 
indeed  much  of  beauty  is  gone  out  of  life.  It  may  be 
doubted  whether  on  the  whole  we  have  made  life  better 
or  happier,  but  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  we  have  made 
life  more  effective.  Our  planet  supports  a  far  greater 
number  of  inhabitants  than  ever  before,  and  those  in- 
habitants are  better  nourished,  better  clad,  and  better 
educated  than  in  the  past.  All  this  has  come  about 
through  the  discovery  and  control  of  the  immeasurable 
and  inexhaustible  mechanical  energies  of  nature,  first  of 
steam  and  then  of  electricity.  But  these  gigantic  forces 
have  not  only  enhanced  incalculably  the  effectiveness  of 
human  life,  they  have  shortened  all  its  processes.  The 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)         149 

supreme  end  to  which  all  practical  inventions  look  is 
economy,  economy  of  time,  economy  of  effort,  economy 
in  the  cost  of  production.  Of  the  two  great  functions  of 
steam,  manufacture  and  transportation,  the  latter  is  of 
more  importance  than  the  former.  And  when  steam 
proved  too  slow,  the  light  wings  of  electricity  were  em- 
ployed to  bring  distant  human  beings  into  instantaneous 
communication  and  to  flash  man's  messages  from  one  end 
of  the  world  to  another. 

All  this  is  wonderful,  but  to  him  who  sees  in  man  more 
than  an  acquiring  animal,  it  cannot  appear  as  an  unmixed 
blessing.  These  mighty  servants  have  ended  by  en- 
slaving their  masters.  They  have  introduced  an  element 
of  haste  and  of  feverish  unrest  into  human  life  which 
amounts  to  a  disease.  All  our  labor-saving  devices  have 
not  procured  for  us  either  rest  or  peace,  they  act  only 
as  an  incentive  to  new  effort.  The  very  processes  of 
acquisition  are  so  vast,  so  complex  and  so  pitiless  that  a 
man  once  launched  in  them  becomes  part  of  a  machine. 
He  is  hurried  on  in  spite  of  himself  and  as  soon  as  he  be- 
comes ineffective  he  is  cast  aside  as  so  much  scrap  iron. 
Moreover  the  purely  material  complexion  of  our  civiliza- 
tion has  reacted  unfavorably  upon  us,  for  man,  strange 
as  the  phrase  sounds  to-day,  is  essentially  a  moral  and 
spiritual  being  and  he  can  never  find  his  permanent  rest 
in  material  things.  Were  the  tendencies  which  have 
prevailed  for  the  past  century  to  prevail  and  to  accelerate 
for  another  hundred  years,  they  would  then  cease  through 
sheer  exhaustion.  Nervous  disorders  propagate  them- 
selves with  such  fatal  facility,  they  increase  in  severity  so 
rapidly,  that  when  a  civilization  becomes  thoroughly 


150  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

neurotic,  unless  the  causes  of  nervousness  are  removed 
its  end  is  in  sight.1  The  great  problem  of  our  age  as  of 
all  ages  is  the  problem  of  the  spiritual  life,  but  never  since 
the  downfall  of  Rome  was  that  problem  more  pressing 
than  it  is  to-day.  Christianity  alrived  too  late  on  the 
scene  to  save  the  Roman  Empire,  but  it  showed  what  a 
spiritual  religion  can  do  by  creating  a  new  world  out  of 
its  ruins.  Only  Christ  is  strong  enough  to  save  the  world 
to-day,  but  to  do  this  He  must  be  allowed  to  free  Himself 
from  the  iron  fetters  with  which  human  tradition  has 
bound  Him.  He  must  be  permitted  to  confront  humanity 
with  all  His  divine  reasonableness,  His  pity,  His  sense 
of  God's  nearness.  Salvation  will  come  not  in  a  return 
to  a  world  that  has  passed  away  forever,  in  an  ineffective 
milk  and  water  existence,  but  in  an  enlargement  of  spiritual 
power  through  the  recognition  and  appropriation  of 
spiritual  energies  which  surround  us,  as  we  have  already 
recognized  and  employed  the  mechanical  energies  of  the 
universe.  We  have  learned  that  in  the  little  world  every 
spiritual  event  is  attended  by  a  mechanical  event  and 
vice  versa.  We  may  be  sure  that  the  same  holds  true  of 
the  great  world.  The  unfailing  characteristic  of  nervous 
debility  is  weakness,  the  secret  of  health  is  peace. 

1  As  to  the  fact  of  the  rapid  increase  of  insanity  and  of  the  milder  and 
severer  neuroses,  there  can  no  longer  be  any  question.  Earlier  writers 
like  Maudsley  encouraged  themselves  that  this  increase  was  only  ap- 
parent, that  it  was  due  to  new  and  improved  methods  of  procuring  vital 
statistics,  to  the  multiplication  of  insane  asylums,  etc.  But  people  do 
not  become  insane  because  asylums  are  built  for  them,  asylums  are 
erected  for  the  accommodation  of  madmen,  and  all  recent  literature 
recognizes  the  deplorable  fact  that  mental  and  nervous  disease  includ- 
ing insanity  and  suicide  is  increasing  much  more  rapidly  than  the  popu- 
lation. 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS   (ENVIRONMENT)       151 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  decline  of  practical 
religion  has  had  an  injurious  effect  on  the  moral  life  and 
sanity  of  every  people  which  has  undergone  this  experi- 
ence, nor  is  the  reason  far  to  seek.  The  morality  and 
standards  of  living  of  every  civilized  nation  are  built  on 
the  foundations  of  religion,  and  when  this  is  withdrawn 
orweakened  the  superstructure  collapses.  Religion,  there- 
fore, cannot  be  regarded  as  an  illusion,  as  a  temporary 
phase  of  human  culture  through  which  men  and  nations 
pass,  and  then  are  done  with  it  forever.  If  this  were  true 
the  downfall  of  religion  would  be  the  harbinger  of  new 
and  higher  life.  As  a  matter  of  fact  in  the  history  of  the 
nations  it  has  been  the  precursor  of  spiritual  night  and 
death.  The  cause  of  the  downfall  of  religion  has  been 
the  same  through  all  ages.  Religion  has  identified  itself 
so  exclusively  with  the  Traditional  Motive  as  to  be  in- 
accessible to  the  other  great  motives  of  faith,  the  Practical 
and  the  Rational.  As  a  result  it  has  largely  ceased  to  be 
useful,  and  it  no  longer  represents  truth.  The  Tradi- 
tional Motive,  believing  because  one  has  been  taught  to 
believe  (Fechner),  is  very  powerful,  but  it  is  not  strong 
enough  to  hold  the  faith  of  the  better  portion  of  mankind 
forever.  A  religion  exclusively  of  the  past  cannot  domi- 
nate the  present  or  represent  reality  to  minds  which  have 
outgrown  it.  Hence  it  is  repudiated. 

On  the  practical  effects  of  the  weakening  of  religious 
faith  as  a  cause  of  nervous  and  mental  disease  I  would 
prefer  to  quote  the  words  of  some  recognized  neurologist 
and  man  of  science.  M6bius  says:  "We  reckon  the 
downfall  of  religion  as  one  of  the  causes  of  mental  and 
nervous  disease.  Religion  is  essentially  a  comforter.  It 


152  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

builds  for  the  man  who  stands  amid  the  misery  and  evil 
of  the  world  another  and  fairer  world.  Besides  his  daily 
care-full  life  it  lets  him  lead  a  second,  purer  life.  The 
consciousness  of  being  within  the  hand  of  Providence, 
confident  hope  of  future  righteousness  and  redemption  is 
a  support  to  the  believer  in  his  work,  his  care  and  need 
for  which  unbelief  has  no  compensation.  In  comparison 
with  the  Last  Things  the  incidents  of  this  life  seem  small, 
and  his  outlook  on  eternity  sustains  him  in  passion  and  in 
sorrow.  Meditation  calms  and  refreshes  him  like  a  heal- 
ing bath.  In  the  congregation  one  member  sustains  an- 
other. Worship  breaks  in  upon  the  daily  drudgery  with 
days  of  rest  and  of  meeting,  and  orders  the  life  of  the 
individual  and  of  the  community  by  the  establishment 
of  fixed  customs.  The  more  religion  descends  into  life, 
the  more  it  remains  at  man's  side  early  and  late,  the  more 
it  affects  our  daily  life,  the  more  powerful  is  its  consoling 
influence.  In  proportion  as  it  disappears  out  of  the 
human  life,  and  as  the  individual  and  the  nation  become 
irreligious,  the  more  comfortless  and  irritating  life  becomes. 
If  one  disregards  the  few  who  make  of  speculation  or  of 
art  a  kind  of  religion,  the  people,  with  its  religion,  loses 
the  ideal  altogether,  and  there  remains  nothing  but  un- 
satisfying reality.  The  best  comfort  in  soirow  and  in- 
ward peace  disappear.  Then  the  highest  good  consists 
in  worldly  possessions,  and  the  struggle  for  these  becomes 
man's  first  and  last.  For  the  people,  however,  as  Kant 
says,  religion  is  the  public  standard  of  virtue,  and  when 
this  standard  falls,  even  if  the  morality  which  rests  on 
natural  goodness  of  the  heart  does  not  directly  suffer, 
formal  morality  (legalitat)  receives  the  severest  injury. 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)       153 

The  morality  of  a  nation  suffers  most  seriously  through 
the  downfall  of  its  religion,  as  experience  has  everywhere 
and  always  proved.  To  speak  of  the  present,  materialism, 
or,  as  it  shamefacedly  calls  itself,  the  mechanical  theory 
of  the  world  expresses  itself  in  the  masses  as  brutality. 
The  pure  ethical  impulses  are  too  weak  to  control  the 
massive  egoistical  instincts  of  men.  Let  us  eat  and  drink 
for  to-morrow  we  die  is  the  logical  watchword.  Struggle 
of  all  against  all,  and  the  conscienceless  subjection  of  the 
weak,  must  prevail  in  exact  proportion  as  the  mechanical 
theory  of  the  world  prevails. 

"If  we  consider  the  effect  of  irreligion  as  increasing  our 
helplessness  to  resist  the  storms  of  life,  and  as  favoring 
dissipation  and  crime,  its  relation  to  nervousness  cannot 
be  doubted.  For  if  chronic  moral  disturbances  con- 
tribute to  nervousness,  these  conditions  must  be  regarded 
as  causes."1 

Another  unquestionable  cause  is  the  strenuousness  of 
our  American  life  with  its  ups  and  downs,  its  incessant 
changes,  its  large  element  of  uncertainty  and  the  restless 
energy  which  it  demands  as  the  price  of  success.  Many 
of  our  higher  positions  of  trust  are  deliberately  planned 
with  the  knowledge  that  no  man  will  hold  them  long. 
Responsibility  and  anxiety  remove  their  occupants  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years.  Of  late  the  vast  combinations  and 
aggregations  of  capital  have  introduced  an  element  of 
uncertainty  into  business  life  which  increases  its  moral 
strain.  A  man  may  labor  successfully  for  years  only  to 
see  the  results  of  his  labor  swept  away  by  causes  over 
which  he  has  no  control.  The  swift  transitions  from 

i  Op.  cU.  85  ff. 


154  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

wealth  to  poverty  and  from  poverty  to  wealth  with  the 
intense  emotional  crises  which  attend  them  are  also  very 
harmful  in  their  effects  on  the  nervous  system.  Men  who 
live  habitually  on  these  emotions,  e.g.,  stock-brokers  and 
gamblers  who  make  and  lose  fortunes  every  day,  naturally 
suffer  most  and  exhibit  many  of  the  phenomena  of  in- 
sanity. The  floor  of  a  stock  exchange,  e.g.,  on  a  day 
when  values  are  fluctuating  rapidly,  might  readily  be  mis- 
taken for  Bed  km.  But  even  in  the  most  legitimate  and 
conservative  business  there  is  an  element  of  uncertainty, 
a  swiftness  of  change,  a  degree  of  fluctuation  which  does 
not  exist  hi  other  countries. 

The  effect  of  the  conditions  of  American  life  is  plainly 
perceptible  in  the  Jew,  who  is  far  more  subject  to  nervous 
diseases  in  this  country  than  elsewhere.  I  have  discussed 
this  question  with  Hebrew  practitioners  and  the  views 
they  have  expressed  coincide  with  my  own.  The  Jew, 
however  humble  may  be  the  beginning  of  his  business 
career,  is  too  intelligent  not  to  perceive  the  great  oppor- 
tunities for  the  acquisition  of  wealth  which  this  country 
affords  him.  Accordingly  he  works  unsparingly,  he 
denies  himself  almost  the  necessities  of  life.  He  is  fre- 
quently ill-nourished  and  in  a  state  of  constant  fatigue. 
But  he  bends  his  whole  energy  to  lifting  himself  out  of 
his  humble  circumstances  into  affluence.  He  works  all 
day  and  he  schemes  and  plans  at  night,  with  the  result 
that  in  spite  of  his  magnificent  vitality,  his  sobriety  and 
freedom  from  ve/iereal  disease,  he  suffers  greatly  from 
insanity  and  other  forms  of  mental  and  nervous  weakness. 

I  would  like  here  to  call  the  attention  of  business  men 
to  the  great  importance  of  a  secondary  aim  or  interest 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)      155 

in  life.  In  fact  I  scarcely  know  of  anything  so  con- 
ducive to  longevity,  the  preservation  of  one's  powers  and 
capacity  for  enjoyment,  as  a  variety  of  interest  and  occu- 
pation. The  most  incurable  and  impossible  patients  we 
have  encountered  have  been  business  men  who  had  con- 
fined themselves  exclusively  to  business  and  who  had 
never  learned  to  play.  When  such  men  find  themselves 
incapacitated  for  business  they  are  the  most  helpless 
and  unhappy  of  human  beings,  for  the  reason  that  they 
do  not  know  what  to  do  with  themselves.  Hence  they 
easily  fall  victims  to  hypochondria,  melancholia,  and 
other  nervous  disorders.  A  man  frequently  looks  for- 
ward for  years  to  retiring  from  business,  and  he  does  so 
only  to  find  himself  restless  and  unhappy  and  perhaps 
to  fall  into  an  early  grave.  A  radical  change  of  habits 
and  occupation  is  apt  to  be  a  dangerous  experiment  after 
fifty,  and  before  a  man  attempts  it  he  should  be  sure  of 
something  to  occupy  his  thought  and  his  time  and  to 
take  him  outside  himself.  Some  men  find  such  an  in- 
terest when  their  own  work  is  done  in  living  for  others. 
On  the  other  hand  a  man  can  do  a  prodigious  amount  of 
work  if  he  varies  that  work  with  play  which  really  amuses 
him,  or  if  he  substitutes  for  mental  toil  occupations  which 
involve  muscle  exercise.  By  such  judicious  habits  men 
like  President  Roosevelt  and  Dr,  Mitchell  have  per- 
formed an  incredible  amount  of  labor  without  injury  to 
their  health.  But  even  more  important  than  a  change 
of  occupation  is  a  real  secondary  interest  in  life  which 
keeps  the  heart  young.  Some  men  find  such  an  interest 
in  sport,  in  hunting  and  fishing,  in  sailing  the  seas  and  in 
exploring  wild  nature.  Others  find  it  in  the  cultivation 


156  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

of  the  soil,  in  breeding  fine  cattle,  horses,  dogs,  sheep  and 
fowls,  others  in  art,  music,  literature,  science,  or  travel. 
But  some  such  avocation  is  almost  indispensable  to  men 
whose  main  interest  in  life  is  absorbing  and  whose  duties 
are  exhausting.  Over  against  the  increasing  strenuous- 
ness  of  life  and  concentration  in  cities,  we  may  point  to 
the  return  to  nature  and  the  soil,  the  revival  of  sport,  the 
passion  for  games  and  out-of-door  exercises  which  have 
added  perceptibly  to  the  stature  of  both  men  and  women 
and  are  among  the  most  encouraging  signs  of  the  times. 
Although  those  whom  we  are  accustomed  to  call  "busi- 
ness men,"  i.e.,  merchants,  financiers,  manufacturers, 
officersof  corporations, etc.,  are  the  most  heavily  burdened, 
the  duties  of  professional  men,  physicians,  jurists,  clergy- 
men, actors,  etc.,  are  not  slight  and  each  of  these  callings 
makes  its  own  demands  on  the  nervous  system.  Few 
greater  mental  efforts  can  be  imagined  than  are  involved 
hi  preparing  and  pleading  an  important  and  difficult 
case  in  court.  The  exercise  of  memory,  of  rapid  judg- 
ment, in  short  of  all  our  higher  faculties  employed  by 
great  lawyers  on  such  occasions,  together  with  the  power 
of  sustained  and  convincing  argument,  tax  the  resources  of 
the  most  gifted  man  and  are  frequently  followed  by  utter 
exhaustion.  The  physician  feels  the  burden  of  the 
gravest  responsibilities.  He  cannot  minister  to  his  patients 
without  to  a  certain  degree  taking  their  sicknesses  upon 
him.  Nor  can  he  forget  that  human  lives  are  constantly 
staked  on  his  judgment  and  skill.  If  he  is  able  and 
brilliant  he  is  apt  to  be  overworked.  He  suffers  from 
mental  and  physical  over-exertion  and  from  almost  con- 
stant anxiety.  The  actor  and  the  singer  stake  their  repu- 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)      157 

tations  every  time  they  appear  on  the  stage.  Beside  the 
incredible  feats  of  memory  they  are  constantly  called 
on  to  perform,  they  must  preserve  an  inward  calm  and 
repose  in  order  to  do  their  best  work.  Every  art  requires 
a  long  and  wearisome  technical  preparation  and  an 
amount  of  labor  of  which  the  uninitiated  can  form  no 
conception.  Clergymen,  if  they  are  rectors  or  ministers 
of  great  and  highly  organized  parishes,  must  be  leaders  of 
thought,  organizers,  financiers,  scholars,  able  preachers. 
In  other  words,  they  must  labor  in  constantly  recurring 
tasks  and  duties,  which  are  always  the  same  and  yet  must 
always  be  done  differently.  Addressing  the  same  audience 
week  by  week,  they  must  not  repeat  themselves.  Speak- 
ing on  the  oldest  theme  known  to  man,  they  must  be  able 
to  make  it  ever  fresh  and  new.  Their  working  week 
consists  of  seven  days,  and  their  working  day,  if  they  are 
really  interested  in  their  work,  ends  at  midnight  or  when 
they  are  too  weary  to  write,  to  speak,  to  think  or  to  act 
any  longer,  and  then  they  go  to  bed  with  the  sad  con- 
sciousness of  having  left  many  tasks  undone.  In  short,  if 
we  are  really  alive  and  awake  to  our  opportunities,  life 
demands  of  us  all  that  we  are  able  to  give  and  to  do. 
But  such  activity,  unless  we  have  the  constitution  of  a 
rhinoceros  or  an  incentive  and  enthusiasm  which  never 
flag,  exhausts  us  and  gives  rise  to  insomnia,  depression, 
brain  fag,  and  every  other  form  of  nervous  weakness. 

Neurasthenia  and  nervousness  in  all  its  forms  are 
frequently  thought  to  be  affections  of  the  rich  and  of  the 
great  brain  workers.  This,  however,  is  a  mistake.  There 
are  other  circumstances  which  act  quite  as  unfavorably 
upon  our  nervous  systems  as  those  which  I  have  enumer- 


158  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

ated.  I  now  refer  to  the  restrictions  of  a  narrow  lot,  to 
loneliness  and  isolation,  to  the  frequent  repetition  of 
uninteresting  tasks,  to  the  burdens  of  maternity  and 
domestic  cares  and  worries.  These,  like  the  constant 
dripping  of  water  which  wears  away  stone,  are  frequently 
the  causes  of  mental  and  nervous  diseases  and  disorders. 
Persons  who  live  much  alone  are  apt  to  become  "  peculiar." 
The  wives  of  farmers,  especially  in  sparsely  settled  regions 
where  life  is  hard  and  barren,  are  peculiarly  subject  to 
insanity.  Bookkeepers  and  .accountants  whose  days  are 
passed  in  performing  simple  operations  on  meaningless 
numbers  are  also  apt  to  suffer  from  mental  disease.  Tele- 
graph operators  and  mail  sorters  whose  duties  demand 
protracted  close  attention  also  suffer  frequently  from 
nervous  disorders.  In  our  practice  the  two  classes  of 
persons  which  most  frequently  seek  our  aid  are  un- 
married women  teachers  and  married  women,  mostly 
mothers,  of  moderate  or  restricted  means.  Among  the 
former  neurasthenia,  nervous  exhaustion,  insomnia,  mild 
melancholia,  and  psychasthenia  are  of  common  occur- 
rence. The  complaints  I  hear  most  frequently  from  such 
teachers  are  of  the  monotonous  repetition  of  tasks,  lone- 
liness and  sadness,  of  the  difficulty  of  the  moral  control 
of  their  charges,  of  fears  of  growing  old  and  helpless,  of 
failure,  of  insanity,  etc.  The  causes  of  nervousness  among 
the  married  women  above  mentioned  are  more  complex 
and  they  cannot  so  readily  be  distinguished.  Sometimes 
this  nervous  condition  is  due  to  marital  incompatibility, 
to  the  intemperance  or  bad  conduct  of  their  husbands,  to 
shock,  or  to  some  painful  moral  experience.  Frequently 
it  is  present  simply  because  these  women  are  unequal  to 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS   (ENVIRONMENT)     159 

the  tasks  and  responsibilities  imposed  upon  them  and 
their  nervous  systems  have  succumbed  to  the  strain. 
Perhaps  they  were  always  more  or  less  delicate,  and  mar- 
riage, child-bearing,  and.  family  cares  have  resulted  in 
further  enfeebling  them.  The  latter  patients  are  among 
those  most  benefited  by  rest  and  change,  although  re- 
organization of  the  home  life  is  frequently  necessary. 
Many  husbands  are  selfish  towards  their  wives  without 
intending  to  be.  They  are  so  accustomed  to  see  the 
latter  weak  and  hear  their  complaints  that  it  does  not 
occur  to  them  that  there  may  be  a  cause  for  such  weak- 
ness and  complaining.  Domestic  servants  over  forty 
years  of  age  are  quite  frequently  slightly  demented. 
This  is  probably  due  to  somewhat  the  same  causes  as 
those  which  affect  teachers  and  to  the  performance  of 
hard  manual  labor  during  menstruation.  The  nervous- 
ness frequently  discoverable  among  students  in  women's 
colleges  is  also  due  largely  to  the  latter  cause,  in  this  case 
to  the  overtaxing  of  the  brain  and  nervous  system  during 
the  menstrual  period.  Dr.  Mitchell  has  written  judi- 
ciously on  this  subject.1 

Among  the  general  psychical  causes  of  nervousness 
intellectual  over-exertion  is  probably  the  most  fruitful. 
No  element  of  our  system  needs  rest  more  than  the  brain 
and  certainly  none  suffers  equally  from  excessive  fatigue. 
When  brain  fatigue  is  attended  by  intense  excitement,  as  is 
frequently  the  case  in  the  lives  of  business  and  professional 
men,  the  injury  to  the  brain  and  nervous  system  is  severe 
and  more  permanent.  All  the  depressing  emotions, 
anger,  fear,  moral  shock,  anxiety,  worry,  sorrow,  have  a 

1  Doctor  and  Patient,  151  ff. 


160  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

very  unfavorable  effect  upon  our  nervous  system  and  upon 
all  our  physical  functions,  and  when  as  sometimes  hap- 
pens these  sad  feelings  persist  for  years,  their  effect  upon 
temperament  and  character  may  be  permanent.  We 
know  to-day  that  every  psychical  event. is  attended  by  a 
corresponding  nervous  event.  Joy,  happiness,  a  sense 
of  well-being,  are  invariably  healthful  and  health-bring- 
ing. Grief,  pain,  anger,  and  anxiety  have  also  their 
concomitants  in  the  brain  and  nervous  system  and  these 
are  injurious  or  destructive  in  character.  It  is  to  be 
remembered,  however,  that  such  emotions  are  frequently 
not  voluntary  in  the  sense  that  they  are  wilful.  They 
are  often  symptoms  of  a  more  general  disease  in  which 
body  and  soul  suffer  together  (Mobius).  The  psychical 
causes  of  nervousness,  as  we  have  seen,  may  also  be  of  a 
different  character.  The  effect  of  our  environment  in- 
stead of  overtaxing  our  moral  and  intellectual  powers 
may  depress  and  starve  us  by  its  barrenness  and  monotony. 
This  is  frequently  the  effect  of  life  on  the  prairie,  espe- 
cially on  those  who  come  from  mountainous  or  hill  coun- 
tries. In  the  west  there  is  a  form  of  mental  disease  known 
as  "prairie  insanity." 

The  physical  causes  of  nervousness  are  very  numerous 
and  can  only  here  be  alluded  to.  Whether  mere  physical 
labor,  however  hard  in  itself ,  produces  nervousness  may  be 
doubted,  although  protracted  labor  which  robs  us  of  our 
sleep  or  rest  is  undoubtedly  injurious.  I  have  seen  the 
experiment  tried  of  causing  men  to  work  seven  days  in 
the  week  with  very  bad  results.  After  a  couple  of  weeks 
the  men  have  become  demoralized,  weak,  and  inefficient, 
and  the  work  (loading  freight  cases)  was  badly  done.  If,  as 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)     161 

von  Jhering  believes,1  the  Sabbath  rest  originated  to  meet 
the  necessities  of  the  laboring  men  in  Babylon,  we  have 
an  ancient  precedent  for  its  scrupulous  observance  which 
modern  physiology  fully  endorses.  In  general,  any  em- 
ployment which  robs  us  of  the  needful  modicum  of  sleep 
must  be  regarded  as  injurious.  Dr.  Weir  Mitchell  has 
proved  abundantly  the  great  value  of  rest  and  isolation 
in  many  of  the  functional  and  organic  neuroses.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  over-stimulation  of  our  senses 
has  an  exhausting  effect  upon  the  nervous  system.  The 
tumult  and  uproar  of  our  cities  unquestionably  has  an 
irritating  influence  upon  those  who  are  inclined  to  .ner- 
vousness. Schopenhauer  has  written  an  eloquent  tract 
on  the  Din  of  Cities  which  ought  to  be  reprinted  and 
widely  circulated.  Elevated  railways  running  through  the 
principal. thoroughfares  of  cities  are  the  cause  of  untold 
sufferings.  Beside  torturing  the  sick  and  weak  with 
their  infernal  uproar,  they  injure  the  eyes  of  thousands 
by  the  tiny  filaments  of  steel  which  the  brakes  constantly 
shave  from  the  wheels.  Many  of  our  street  noises  could 
be  abolished  or  mitigated  with  great  benefit  to  the  public 
health. 

Intense  heat  also  has  an  irritating  and  depressing  effect 
upon  the  nervous  system.  The  extraordinary  series 
of  atrocious  crimes  against  young  children  which  oc- 
curred in  New  York  last  summer  (1907)  has  given  rise  to 
many  curious  theories  on  the  subject.  In  this  outbreak 
suggestion  was  a  far  more  potent  factor  than  the  heat  of 
the  sun.  It  is  known,  however,  that  summer  is  favorable  to 
crimes  of  violence  and  also  to  suicide.  The  most  marked 

1  Evolution  of  the  Aryan. 


162  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

effect  of  intense  heat  on  the  nervous  system  is  in  heat 
prostration  and  so-called  sunstrokes  which  are  attended 
by  marked  elevation  of  temperature,  insensibility,  intense 
headache,  and  convulsions,  and  which  is  frequently  fol- 
lowed by  a  long  period  of  nervous  weakness. 

Physical  shock  is  also  a  common  cause  of  nervous  de- 
bility, and  in  these  days  of  frequent  railway  and  auto- 
mobile accidents  the  so-called  traumatic  neuroses  are  of 
constant  occurrence.  In  damage  suits  against  railway 
companies  injuries  of  this  nature  frequently  receive  slight 
consideration,  yet  they  may  be  far  more  serious  in  their 
subsequent  effect  than  broken  bones.  I  know  a  young 
man  of  splendid  physique  who  underwent  a  railway 
accident  with  apparently  no  effect  beyond  that  which  is 
generally  termed  "a  good  shaking-up."  Within  a  year 
he  became  a  nervous  wreck  unable  to  attend  to  his  busi- 
ness and  a  burden  to  himself  and  to  his  family.  This 
condition  lasted  for  four  or  five  years  when  it  gradually 
improved,  yet  he  obtained  but  trifling  compensation  be- 
cause he  had  no  wounds  to  show. 

Other  physical  diseases  such  as  heart  disease,  phthisis, 
and  affections  of  the  reproductive  organs,  especially  in 
women,  produce  nervous  conditions.  In  tuberculosis 
nervous  disturbances  are  frequently  present  at  the  incep- 
tion of  the  disease,  but  as  the  latter  progresses  irritability 
and  depression  give  place  to  the  unconquerable  optimism 
which  is  characteristic  of  consumption.  The  association 
between  affections  of  the  female  organs  and  nervousness 
is  preserved  in  the  word  hysteria,  but  this  relation  is  very 
general  as  many  hysterical  women  have  no  organic 
disease,  and  many  sufferers  from  uterine  affections  are 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)     163 

not  hysterical.  Fevers  through  the  modifications  they 
effect  in  cerebral  circulation  and  through  the  inflamma- 
tion of  the  brain  and  its  membranes  give  rise  to  mental 
disturbances  and  to  delirium  which  resembles  the  raving 
of  insanity.  Anaemia,  whether  due  to  a  deficiency  of  red 
blood  corpuscles  or  to  actual  loss  of  blood,  is  a  certain 
cause  of  nervousness.  Pale  and  ill-nourished  girls  pre- 
sent typical  cases,  yet  it  is  not  true  that  all  nervous  suf- 
ferers are  anaemic.  When  the  volume  and  constitution 
of  the  blood  become  normal,  the  nervous  symptoms 
usually  disappear.  The  same  may  be  said  of  nervous- 
ness which  is  caused  or  complicated  by  digestional  dis- 
turbances. In  all  such  cases  it  is  best  to  attack  the 
physical  symptoms  first.  My  friend  and  associate,  Dr. 
J.  Warren  Achorn,  the  well-known  stomach  specialist 
of  Boston,  has  succeeded  in  innumerable  instances  in  con- 
trolling severe  nervous  disorders  by  re-establishing  the 
equilibrium  of  digestion  and  assimilation. 

Toxic  substances,  whether  they  are  retained  through 
defective  elimination,  or  are  introduced  into  the  system 
from  without,  have  a  marked  effect  on  our  brain  and  nerve 
life  and  upon  our  states  of  consciousness.  Of  these  the 
most  important  is  alcohol.  This  may  be  so  highly  diluted 
that  the  action  is  very  slight,  but  intoxication  as  the  word 
implies  is  a  poisoning  of  the  higher  centers  of  the  brain, 
which  causes  a  temporary  delirium  corresponding  to  the 
delirium  of  insanity,  and  which  affects  sensibility,  loco- 
motion, and  speech.  The  result  of  so  violent  a  stimula- 
tion of  the  nervous  system,  especially  on  one  inclined  to 
nervousness,  is  profoundly  depressing.  The  intoxicated 
person,  as  Mobius  says,  is,  for  the  time  being,  an  invalid. 


164  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

Not  only  does  he  suffer  from  acute  physical  and  nervous 
symptoms  such  as  nausea,  headache,  nervous  tremblings, 
prostration,  intense  irritability,  apathy,  etc.,  but  he  is 
far  more  susceptible  than  he  would  otherwise  be  to  other 
forms  of  disease  and  less  likely  to  recover  from  them.1 

Acuter  forms  of  alcoholism  may  cause  the  dis- 
eased condition  of  the  nervous  system  known  as  de- 
lirium tremens  which  not  infrequently  results  in  death 
itself,  or  in  permanent  insanity,  in  epilepsy  or  paralysis. 
I  am  speaking  here  on  the  effects  of  alcohol  on  civilized 
man;  its  effect  on  savages  is  different.  Alcohol  makes 
savages  drunk;  it  does  not  make  them  nervous. 

Among  Byron's  trifling  and  immoral  sayings,  one  for 
which  the  world  has  never  forgiven  him  runs  thus:  "Man, 
being  reasonable,  must  get  drunk."  Offensive  as  these 
words  are,  as  we  look  around  the  world,  the  power  to  be- 
come intoxicated  seems  to  constitute  one  of  the  striking 
differences  between  rational  men  and  irrational  brutes. 
Whither  should  we  go  to  find  a  people  ignorant  of  the 
art  of  distilling  alcohol  and  of  concocting  drinks  which 
rob  them  of  their  reason?  When  the  barbaric  German 
tribes  first  came  into  civilization  they  were  already  a  beer- 
drinking  people.  Their  capacity  for  their  national 

1  "I  think  I  am  entirely  safe  in  saying  that  if  we  could  blot  out  the 
influence  of  alcohol,  we  could  save  thirty  out  of  every  hundred  above 
five  years  of  age  now  dying  from  inflammation  of  the  brain  and  its  mem- 
branes, twenty-nine  out  of  every  hundred  now  dying  from  apoplexy, 
twenty-seven  out  of  every  hundred  now  dying  from  acute  mania,  twenty- 
seven  out  of  every  hundred  now  dying  from  Bright's  disease,  and  twenty- 
four  out  of  every  hundred  now  dying  from  erysipelas,  besides  all  the 
cases  now  dying  from  alcoholism,  and  all  the  cases  now  dying  from 
cirrhosis  of  the  liver."  Dr.  Andrew  H.  Smith,  The  Influence  of  Alcohol 
in  the  Production  of  Disease.  New  York,  1886. 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS   (ENVIRONMENT)     165 

beverage  struck  the  Romans,  who  themselves  were  no 
mean  drinkers,  with  astonishment.  What  beer  is  in 
Germany,  wine  is  in  France,  Italy,  and  Spain,  and  whisky 
in  Scotland  and  Ireland.  The  English,  who  like  ourselves 
have  no  one  national  beverage,  welcome  with  joy  the  in- 
toxicants of  every  civilized  people.  The  inhabitants  of 
Kamschatka  consume  a  kind  of  mushroom  which  induces 
a  protracted  delirium.  The  descendants  of  the  Incas 
have  their  greasy  chica  prepared  from  corn  which  has 
been  chewed  by  mules.  The  Tartars  intoxicate  them- 
selves with  a  fermentation  of  mutton,  rice,  and  other  vege- 
tables, or  with  their  beloved  kumiss,  made  of  fermented 
mare's  milk.  In  the  East  opium  is  freely  eaten  and 
smoked,  a  vice  which  has  penetrated  every  part  of  the 
world.  In  South  America  coca  is  the  favorite  narcotic, 
which  of  late  years  in  the  form  of  cocaine  has  become 
popular  with  all  nations.  If  there  is  a  people  on  earth 
so  primitive  as  not  to  have  learned  how  to  poison  itself 
with  alcohol  or  narcotics,  civilization  no  sooner  finds 
that  people  than  it  teaches  them  these  deadly  arts. 

What  is  the  reason  why  the  whole  human  race  with 
scarce  an  exception  has  so  willingly  yielded  itself  to  the 
dangerous  pleasures  of  alcoholic  and  narcotic  poisoning? 
Undoubtedly  because  of  their  effects.  There  is  nothing 
which  man  dreads  so  much  as  the  dulness  and  monotony 
of  a  barren  existence.  A  life  of  suffering  is  hardly  so 
dreadful  as  a  life  of  ennui.  Now  hi  intoxication  man 
finds  the  longed-for  escape  from  a  monotonous  existence, 
and  the  more  barren  life  is  of  vital  interest,  the  greater 
the  temptation  to  this  relief.  Especially  noticeable  is 
this  cause  in  our  western  states  and  territories,  where 


i66  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

men  regard  a  prolonged  debauch  almost  in  the  light  of  an 
innocent  recreation,  a  refuge  from  the  deadly  monotony 
of  their  daily  lives.  Intoxication  is  a  form  of  delirium 
in  which  all  the  forces  of  the  nervous  system  are  tem- 
porarily exalted.  Of  course,  the  reaction  of  profound 
depression  follows  quickly  on  the  heels  of  enjoyment,  but 
this  is  a  consideration  few  men  have  strength  enough  to 
weigh,  or  if  they  do  take  it  into  account  they  dismiss  it 
as  a  lesser  evil.  We  rightly  think  that  intoxication  de- 
grades a  man,  but  that  is  not  what  the  drunkard  thinks, 
at  least  when  he  is  drunk.  Drunken  men  are  almost 
always  optimists:  nothing  troubles  them.  Listening  to 
their  conversation  one  would  suppose  them  to  be  kings 
and  princes,  superior  to  their  fellows,  able  to  do  what 
they  will.  The  first  effect  of  alcoholic  intoxication  seems 
to  be  an  exaltation  of  self-consciousness,  an  elevation  of 
feeling,  a  sense  of  importance  which  in  a  sober  man  would 
be  foolish  egotism.  This  feeling  may  rise  to  madness 
and  give  birth  to  crime,  in  fact  the  larger  proportion  of 
all  crimes  is  directly  inspired  by  alcohol.  The  forces  of 
the  mind,  goaded  to  unwonted  activity,  break  their 
uniting  bond  and  fall  into  a  wild  whirl  of  anarchy,  in  which 
thoughts  and  emotions,  joy  and  sorrow,  good  and  evil, 
stretch  out  their  hands  to  one  another  in  a  furious  dance, 
and  the  whole  soul  is  given  to  unbridled  license,  not,  how- 
ever, untroubled  by  remorse. 

As  intoxication  becomes  profounder  its  effects  are  more 
overwhelming.  The  whole  mind  and  body,  with  the 
exception  of  the  medulla  oblongata,  become  drunk  to- 
gether. The  muscles  relax  and  cease  to  obey  the  will. 
The  senses  are  obscured  and  the  mind  cut  off  from  its 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)     167 

usual  means  of  communication  with  the  external  world, 
and  madly  stimulated  is  plunged  into  a  sea  of  gloomy  and 
delirious  thought.  The  will  vainly  struggles  to  preserve 
its  autonomy  against  the  overwhelming  flood  of  physio- 
logical disturbances  which  threaten  to  engulf  it  on  every 
side.  The  flashes  of  intelligence  grow  faint  and  inter- 
mittent. Then  they  cease,  and  night,  spiritual  night, 
the  night  of  death,  throws  its  sable  pall  over  all.  That 
physical  death  does  not  instantly  follow  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  in  the  strange  dispensation  of  things,  the  palsied 
hand  is  no  longer  able  to  carry  to  the  lips  the  poison  which 
would  next  overthrow  that  watchful  guardian  which  pre- 
sides over  the  beating  heart  and  the  function  of  respira- 
tion. Were  some  kind  friend  to  perform  this  office,  the 
drunkard's  troubles  would  end  then  and  there.  That 
such  a  state  is  sinful,  degrading  to  manhood,  destructive  to 
soul  and  body,  goes  without  saying.  Only  a  man  of  the 
lowest  instincts  can  find  pleasure  in  so  brutal  an  indul- 
gence. We  may  lose  ourselves  thus  once  and  find  ourselves 
again,  yet  not  as  before.  The  soul  lost  in  the  darkness  of 
flesh  and  sin  does  not  bring  all  its  spirituality  back  with  it, 
nor  does  the  brain  recover  quickly  from  so  gross  an  injury. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  nervous  system  is  wonderfully  plas- 
tic, it  learns  its  lessons  quickly  and  retains  its  habits  with 
fatal  tenacity.  The  man  who  has  been  intoxicated  only 
once  is  not  without  danger  of  becoming  a  drunkard. 

"  From  drinking  fiery  poison  in  a  den, 
Crowded  with  tawdry  girls  and  squalid  men, 
Who  hoarsely  laugh  and  brawl  and  curse  and  fight, 
I  wake  from  day-dreams  to  this  real  night." 1 

1  James  Thomson. 


168  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

The  effects  of  narcotic  poisoning  differ  radically  from 
those  of  alcohol  and  vary  with  the  substances  employed. 
The  subjective  effect  of  opium  differs  widely  in  different 
persons  and  races  and  in  different  stages  of  its  habitual 
use.  The  Chinese,  for  example,  regard  the  use  of  opium 
very  much  as  we  do  the  use  of  tobacco,  i.e.,  as  mildly 
deleterious.  At  first,  according  to  the  accounts  of  edu- 
cated white  men  who  have  carefully  observed  their  sen- 
sations, there  is  a  sense  of  well-being;  not,  however,  the 
expansive  and  boisterous  happiness  of  alcoholism,  which 
demands  outward  expression,  but  rather  an  inward  state 
of  untroubled  peace  which  the  Chinese  call  "a  flame 
which  burns  far  from  the  wind."  The  subject  of  opium 
or  of  morphia  is  for  the  time  being  calmly  happy,  for  the 
sorrows  of  life  cannot  penetrate  the  veil  behind  which  he 
slumbers.  He  is  not  bored  by  his  environment,  for  a  fine, 
intense  organic  cerebral  activity  supplies  him  with  an 
unending  series  of  mental  images.  No  fancy  is  so  bold, 
no  pencil  so  accomplished,  as  to  be  able  to  depict  the 
visions  which  rise  out  of  the  chaos  of  his  brain  and  which 
display  themselves  to  his  closed  eyes.  Alcohol  draws  men 
together.  Its  votaries  must  have  companions  to  laugh 
with,  to  drink  with,  to  talk  with.  The  victim  of  opium 
goes  his  way  alone  for  the  reason  that  no  other  human 
being  can  accompany  him.  No  other  eye  can  see  what  he 
sees,  no  other  heart  can  know  what  he  enjoys  and  suffers. 

The  effects  of  the  habitual  use  of  opium  and  morphia 
is  even  more  injurious  to  the  brain  and  nervous  system 
than  the  use  of  alcohol,  and  the  habit  also  is  more  difficult 
to  control.  The  moral  effect  of  opium  is  the  erection 
of  a  veil  between  its  victim  and  the  world.  At  first  this 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)     169 

veil  is  of  such  diaphanous  texture  as  to  be  scarcely  per- 
ceptible. A  man  dimly  feels  that  his  relations  with  the 
world  have  undergone  a  change,  a  change  for  the  better, 
he  thinks,  since  now  he  has  a  refuge  from  every  ill  of  life. 
Only  when  he  attempts  to  rend  this  slight  tissue  of  illusions 
does  he  discover  that  it  is  composed  of  finest  steel.  His 
inner  life  may  be  a  Heaven,  or  it  may  be  a  Hell;  the  fact 
remains  that  he  cannot  escape  from  it.  The  veil  between 
him  and  the  world  thickens.  He  looks  out  on  life  as  one 
sees  a  light  through  an  alabaster  vase.  He  feels  the  world 
as  one  feels  a  piece  of  glass  through  a  silk  glove.  In  time 
his  thoughts  are  apt  to  become  of  a  darker  complexion, 
and  his  moral  vision  is  wholly  obscured.  The  only  truth 
to  him  is  what  he  experiences  on  his  mysterious  journeys 
to  the  land  of  nothingness.  The  one  thing  needful  in 
life  is  the  means  of  prolonging  his  slumber.  To  obtain 
this  he  would  betray  his  best  friend,  rob  the  fatherless, 
make  dominoes  of  his  parents'  bones.  For  the  thing 
which  he  dreads  most  is  awakening.  So  every  tie  which 
binds  the  opium-eater  to  his  fellow  men  gives  way.  The 
victim  of  opium  has  but  one  tie  —  that  which  binds  him 
to  his  drug.  If  alcohol  drowns  the  soul,  opium  immures 
it.  Its  votaries  continue  to  live  in  their  prison,  but  it  is  a 
life  which  dreams  of  death.1 

"From  wandering  through  many  a  solemn  scene, 
Of  opium  vision  with  a  heart  serene, 
And  intellect  miraculously  bright, 
I  wake  from  day-dreams  to  this  real  night." 

—  James  Thomson. 

1  These  two  statements  are  based  in  part  on  the  fine  and  discrimi- 
nating description  of  the  phenomena  of  alcoholism  and  of  the  opium 
habit  of  Paolo  Mantegazza.  Physiology  of  Pleasure,  chap.  19. 


170  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

No  etiology  of  nervousness  would  be  complete  which 
did  not  call  attention  to  the  extraordinary  prevalence  of 
nervous  disorders  on  this  continent,  and  which  did  not 
deal  specifically  with  the  problem  of  American  nervous- 
ness. So  far  as  nervousness  is  to  be  regarded  as  the 
disease  of  civilization,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  America, 
in  which  the  processes  of  civilization  are  most  accelerated, 
should  be  the  land  in  which  this  disease  would  most  plainly 
reveal  itself.  Fortunately  for  us,  however,  our  peculiar 
national  tendency  to  nervousness  is  in  the  direction  of 
the  lighter  functional  neuroses.  The  severer  organic 
forms  of  nervous  disease  are  by  no  means  unusual,  but 
there  is  nothing  to  show  that  they  are  more  prevalent  in 
America  than  in  other  civilized  countries,  nor  do  the 
milder  nervous  disorders  tend  to  pass  into  severer  organic 
nervous  diseases. 

The  causes  and  symptoms  of  American  nervousness 
have  been  treated  comprehensively  by  Dr.  George  M. 
Beard.  His  book  *  is  now  old,  but  it  remains  the  best 
popular  treatise  on  the  subject  with  which  I  am  acquainted. 
Dr.  Beard,  as  we  have  already  seen,  regards  nervousness 
as  a  direct  outcome  of  modern  civilization.  He  emphati- 
cally asserts  that  without  civilization  there  can  be  no 
nervousness,  and  that  neither  bad  habits,  climate,  race, 
nor  environment  can  make  nervous  disease  possible  and 
common  except  when  reinforced  by  brain-work,  worry, 
and  an  indoor  life.  He  recognizes  the  hereditary  factor 
in  nervous  disorders,  but  he  does  not  give  it  sufficient 
weight.  Seventy-five  years  ago,  Dr.  Beard  affirms,  ner- 

1  American  Nervousness,  Its  Causes  and  Consequences,  Putnam,  New 
York,  1881. 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)     171 

vousness  was  unknown  to  America  and  to  the  world.  To- 
day (1881)  there  are  more  than  fifty  thousand  cases  in 
this  country  alone.  (If  Dr.  Beard  were  writing  now  he 
would  have  to  multiply  these  figures  by  ten.)  What  is 
the  cause  of  this  unexampled  spread  of  a  new  disease? 
In  attempting  to  answer  this  question,  Dr.  Beard  enu- 
merates many  of  the  characteristics  of  American  nervous- 
ness, and  then  states  what  he  believes  to  be  their  causes. 
Among  the  former  he  mentions  the  fine  organization  so 
characteristic  of  the  native-born  American,  which  is 
marked  by  fine  soft  hair,  delicate  skin,  nicely  chiseled 
features,  small  bones,  and  which  is  frequently  accom- 
panied by  a  slight  physical  and  muscular  system.  This, 
as  he  observes,  accompanies  the  true  nervous  tempera- 
ment. Such  a  constitution  can  only  be  produced  by  a 
high  form  of  civilization,  and  in  Dr.  Beard's  opinion  it 
protects  us  from  ordinary  fevers  and  inflammatory 
diseases.  Among  other  physical  indications  of  nervous 
weakness  Beard  notices  the  fragility  of  American  teeth, 
an  early  baldness  of  American  men,  increasing  sensitive- 
ness to  pain  and  to  heat  and  cold,  and  digestional  weak- 
ness. Irregularities  of  teeth,  like  their  decay,  are  the 
product  primarily  of  civilization,  and  secondarily  of  cli- 
mate. The  only  races  which  have  poor  teeth  are  those 
that  clean  them.  I  submit,  however,  that  as  long  as 
American  women  are  distinguished  by  their  long  and 
abundant  hair,  nervousness  can  hardly  be  regarded  as 
the  cause  of  baldness  in  our  men.  Dr.  Beard  also  calls 
attention  to  the  growing  disability  of  American  women 
to  sustain  the  burdens  of  the  marriage  relation  and  to 
perform  the  functions  of  maternity.  In  speaking  of  the 


172  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

increasing  sensitiveness  of  the  digestive  organs,  Dr.  Beard 
calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  a  generation  or  two  ago 
pork  and  Indian  meal  formed  the  chief  staples  of  life  in 
America,  as  they  are  still  in  many  parts  of  the  South  and 
West.  This  diet  could  no  longer  be  tolerated  by  people 
who  live  in  cities.  "In  America  pork,  like  the  Indian, 
flees  before  civilization."  Americans  eat  better  and  more 
carefully  prepared  foods  than  any  other  people  in  the  world 
and  suffer  most  from  indigestion.  The  first  of  these 
propositions  is,  I  think,  open  to  question.  The  well-to- 
do  and  intelligent  in  America,  who  after  all  form  but  an 
insignificant  fraction  of  our  whole  population,  unquestion- 
ably live  better  than  any  class  of  the  same  numerical 
strength  in  other  lands.  But  when  we  pass  into  the  homes 
of  the  poor  and  uneducated,  we  find  ignorance  of  the  sim- 
plest principles  of  dietetics,  a  vast  amount  of  waste,  and 
the  ruin  of  good  food  by  bad  cooking.  Moreover,  as  re- 
gards our  public  eating  houses,  apart  from  the  fine  hotels 
of  our  larger  cities,  there  is  no  other  country  in  the  civi- 
lized world  where  it  is  so  difficult  to  obtain  a  decent  meal 
as  it  is  in  America. 

Dr.  Beard  comments  very  interestingly  on  our  increased 
susceptibility  to  alcohol  and  narcotics  and  also  to  drugs 
and  medicines.  "Among  Americans  of  the  higher  order, 
those  who  live  indoors,  drinking  is  a  lost  art.  A  Euro- 
pean coming  to  America  sees  a  sight  which  no  other  civi- 
lized nation  can  show  him  —  greater  than  Niagara  — 
an  immense  body  of  intelligent  people  voluntarily  and 
habitually  abstaining  from  alcoholic  liquors,  females 
almost  universally  so,  and  males  temperate  if  not  totally 
abstinent.  There  is,  perhaps,  no  single  fact  in  sociology 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)      173 

more  instructive  and  far-reaching  than  this,  and  this  is 
but  the  fraction  of  the  general  and  sweeping  fact  that  the 
heightened  sensitiveness  of  Americans  forces  them  to 
abstain  entirely,  or  use  in  incredible  and  amusing  modera- 
tion, not  only  the  stronger  alcoholic  liquors,  whether  pure 
or  impure,  but  also  the  milder  wines,  ales,  and  beers,  and 
even  tea  and  coffee."  This  is  not  altogether  the  impres- 
sion of  our  habits  which  intelligent  visitors  from  abroad 
have  received  on  visiting  America,  nor  does  this  state- 
ment coincide  with  the  fact  that  a  vaster  quantity  of  malt 
and  spirituous  liquors  is  manufactured  and  sold  hi 
America  than  in  any  other  country  on  earth.  In  all 
human  probability  this  is  drunk  by  some  one.  No  doubt 
the  Germans  and  Irish  to  whom  Dr.  Beard  assigns  the 
whole  amount  get  their  share,  but  it  is  improbable  that 
they  consume  it  all.  Still  Dr.  Beard  is  unquestionably 
right  in  his  assertion  that  a  growing  susceptibility  to  the 
effects  of  alcohol  is  characteristic  of  the  higher  type  of 
American  and  that  this  is  a  sign  of  nervous  weakness. 
It  is  also  certain  that  climate  has  a  marked  effect  on  man's 
craving  for  alcohol  and  on  his  ability  to  endure  it.  Eng- 
lishmen, Scotchmen,  and  Germans  visiting  this  country 
have  frequently  commented  upon  the  fact  that  they 
neither  desired  nor  could  endure  their  usual  quantity  of 
stimulating  liquor.1  The  large  daily  ration  of  whisky 
of  which  the  Scotch  and  Irish  partake  apparently  with 
impunity  at  home  would  be  destructive  to  them  in  this 
country.  The  same  may  be  said  of  tea  and  coffee,  and 
of  tobacco.  Their  effects  on  persons  of  nervous  tempera- 
ment in  this  country  are  unquestionably  injurious.  As 

1  See  e.g.  Charles  Kingsley's  first  letter  from  America. 


174  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

Beard  puts  it,  "Our  fathers  could  smoke,  our  mothers 
could  smoke,  but  their  children  must  ofttimes  be  cautious, 
and  chewing  is  very  rapidly  going  out  of  custom,  and  will 
soon,  like  snuff-taking,  become  a  historic  curiosity  while 
cigars  give  way  to  cigarettes." 

Dr.  Beard,  speaking  as  a  physician  of  experience,  also 
asserts  that  Americans  are  far  more  sensitive  to  the  action 
of  medicines  than  other  peoples,  and  that  this  sensitiveness 
is  increasing.  While  fonder  of  drugs  than  any  other  peo- 
ple, they  are  least  able  to  endure  them.  This  is  shown 
among  other  instances  in  the  effect  of  cathartic  remedies 
which  are  administered  in  constantly  decreasing  doses. 
"Where  two  or  three  powerful  pills  were  formerly  required 
for  a  strong  cathartic  effect,  now  one  or  two,  perhaps  half 
a  pill,  suffices."  Physicians  who  have  both  hospital  and 
private  practice  constantly  observe  how  temperament 
modifies  physiological  action  of  drugs.  Coarse  and  phleg- 
matic natures  can  endure  far  more  powerful  medicines 
than  the  nervous  and  sensitive.  This  is  brought  home  to 
those  of  our  people  who  come  under  the  care  of  foreign 
physicians,  whether  in  England  or  on  the  continent,  and 
they  have  learned  by  bitter  experience  that  they  cannot 
tolerate  the  powerful  medicines  which  those  physicians 
are  accustomed  to  administer.  A  friend  of  mine,  a  deli- 
cate and  sensitive  woman,  almost  lost  her  life  as  a  result 
of  taking  sixty  grains  of  phenacetine  which  were  prescribed 
for  her  as  a  single  dose  by  a  celebrated  German  physician. 
Among  other  symptoms  of  American  nervousness,  Dr. 
Beard  cites  the  wide-spread  prevalence  of  hay-fever  and 
catarrh,  the  tendency  to  abbreviate  speech,  and  the  high- 
pitched  American  voice  and  our  nasal  intonation. 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)     175 

The  causes  of  American  nervousness  Dr.  Beard  finds  in 
the  high  pressure  of  American  life,  re-enforced  by  the  stimu- 
lating  and  depressing  effects  of  our  climate.  The  latter 
cause  in  itself  could  never  produce  nervousness,  since  the 
American  Indians,  who  were  far  more  exposed  to  climatic 
changes  than  ourselves,  are  among  the  least  nervous  of 
mankind.  Working  in  conjunction  with  our  intense 
mental  activity,  our  indoor  life,  and  with  all  the  nervous 
tension  to  which  we  are  exposed,  climate  unquestionably 
is  an  important  factor  in  the  creation  of  nervous  diseases 
and  disorders.  The  influence  of  climate  and  environ- 
ment together  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  a  new  and  dis- 
tinct type  of  humanity  has  been  evolved  in  the  course  of 
a  few  hundred  years  on  these  shores,  a  type  that  differs 
perceptibly  from  its  English  prototype.  The  American 
is  taller,  sparer,  less  ruddy  than  the  Englishman.  Both 
American  men  and  women  are  less  inclined  to  become 
corpulent  with  advancing  years,  partly  because  they  eat 
less  and  drink  less.1  The  moist  skin  of  our  English 
ancestors  in  our  climate  has  become  dry,  their  curly  hair 
straight  and  silken.  Especially  does  the  American  differ 
from  the  Englishman  in  excess  of  nervous  energy  and  in 
the  rapidity  of  his  mental  operations.  This  is  shown 
especially  in  our  rapidity  of  speech  and  in  our  great  facility 
in  public  speaking. 

The  characteristics  of  our  climate  which  have  done 
most  to  accentuate  our  tendency  to  nervousness  in  Beard's 
opinion  are  its  extreme  dryness,  the  immense  variation 
of  its  summer  and  winter  temperatures,  and  its  rapid 

1  Dr.  Mitchell  comments  on  this  fact  and  ascribes  it  chiefly  to  climatic 
causes.  Fat  and  Blood,  p.  21. 


1 76  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

fluctuations.  I  am,  however,  by  no  means  sure  of  the 
correctness  of  the  first  of  these  causes.  No  part  of  this 
country  suffers  so  much  from  nervousness  in  all  its  forms 
as  New  England,  whose  climate  can  hardly  be  called  dry, 
but  on  the  other  hand  the  very  dry  climate  of  Colorado, 
Montana,  Arizona,  and  Wyoming  has  already  devel- 
oped a  very  marked  tendency  to  nervousness.  Beard's 
observations  on  the  effects  of  extreme  heat  and  cold  and 
of  rapid  changes  of  temperature  are  very  interesting. 
He  reminds  us  of  the  powerfully  stimulating  effect  on  the 
system  obtained  by  the  alternation  of  ice  and  hot  water 
and  by  the  Turkish  bath.  This  intense  stimulation,  how- 
ever, soon  gives  rise  to  exhaustion.  The  American  is 
stimulated  to  greater  activity  by  his  climate,  but  its  per- 
manent effect  is  to  exhaust  him.  Foreigners  visiting  this 
country  have  frequently  observed  this.  They  feel  more 
energetic  but  they  tire  sooner  than  at  home.1  "The  in- 
habitants of  the  northern  and  eastern  portions  of  the 
United  States  are  subjected  to  severer  and  more  sudden 
and  frequent  alternations  of  heat  and  cold  than  the  in- 
habitants of  any  other  civilized  country.  Our  climate 
is  a  union  of  the  tropics  and  the  poles:  half  the  year  we 
freeze,  the  other  half  roast,  and  at  all  seasons  a  day  of 
painful  cold  is  liable  to  be  followed  by  a  day  of  painful 
warmth.  .  .  .  Apart  from  the  direct  effect  of  these  con- 
ditions on  the  nervous  system,  they  confine  us  too  much 
to  our  houses.  During  a  large  part  of  the  year,  either 
because  it  is  too  warm  or  too  cold,  we  are  disinclined  to 
go  abroad  or  to  take  much  exercise.  The  extreme  cold 
compels  us  to  maintain  a  temperature  in  our  houses 

1  Sec  e.g.  Kingsley's,  "  Letters  from  America." 


CAUSES  OF  NERVOUSNESS  (ENVIRONMENT)      177 

which  Europeans  find  oppressive  and  intolerable.  The 
effect  of  the  degrees  of  our  climate  is  to  accelerate  all  the 
vital  changes  of  our  organism,  with  the  result  that  we 
actually  live  faster  than  other  peoples  and  wear  out  earlier." 
As  one  travels  south  in  this  country  one  sees  nervousness 
steadily  diminish.  Boston,  as  a  city,  is  more  nervous 
than  New  York,  New  York  more  nervous  than  Phila- 
delphia and  Baltimore,  and  further  south  the  tendency  to 
nervousness  is  not  wide-spread.  This  is  probably  due 
partly  to  inherited  tendencies  in  regard  to  the  conduct 
of  life,  partly  to  the  effect  of  a  warm  and  too  enervating 
climate  in  relaxing  the  restless  activities  of  man.  As  the 
conditions  of  Northern  life  are  introduced  into  the  South, 
they  can  hardly  fail  to  be  followed  by  increasing  nervous- 
ness. 

In  general  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  functional 
nervousness  we  have  been  describing  has  no  perceptible 
affect  upon  longevity.  Americans  suffer  more  than  any 
other  people  from  these  disorders,  but  they  excel  all 
nations  but  the  Jews  in  the  average  length  of  life.  This 
is  shown  particularly  in  the  longevity  of  brain-workers 
which  here  as  elsewhere  exceeds  that  of  manual  laborers 
and  indeed  the  longevity  of  any  other  class.  Dr.  Beard's 
discussion  of  this  subject  forms  the  ablest  and  most  in- 
teresting chapter  of  his  book.  As  an  offset  to  the  deleteri- 
ous influences  of  our  civilization,  we  see  many  healthful 
influences  at  work  to  check  and  neutralize  the  effects  of 
over-exertion.  I  allude  here  to  such  tendencies  as  longer 
vacations  for  all,  general  relaxation  of  all  interests  during 
the  heated  term,  the  disposition  of  well-to-do  families  to 
live  in  the  country  for  the  larger  portion  of  the  year,  a 


178  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

renewed  love  of  out-of-door  life  and  sport,  the  athletic 
spirit  cultivated  by  our  colleges,  and  physical  activity 
and  prowess  of  our  young  women.  These  tendencies,  if 
they  persist  for  a  generation,  cannot  fail  to  be  productive 
of  great  good.  By  this  means,  and  by  the  cultivation  of 
the  spiritual  life,  we  may  escape  from  the  flood  of  nervous 
disorders  which  threatens  to  overwhelm  us. 


THE  cellular  theory  has  been  one  of  the  most  stimulat- 
ing movements  in  modern  science.  This  theory  con- 
siders all  living  organisms,  whether  animals  or  plants, 
as  composed  of  an  immense  number  of  independent,  yet 
interacting,  units,  called  cells.  A  cell  may  be  denned  as 
a  microscopic,  anatomical  unit,  limited  by  a  membrane 
or  wall  and  containing  a  semi-liquid  substance  called 
protoplasm.  Within  this  protoplasm  lies  the  most  vital 
portion  of  the  cell,  from  the  standpoint  of  heredity  and 
energy,  known  as  the  nucleus.  This  protoplasm  has 
been  defined  by  Huxley  as  "the  physical  basis  of  life." 
Cells  can  be  seen  and  studied  by  means  of  the  higher 
powers  of  the  microscope.  Simple  as  they  may  seem,  yet 
their  complexity  is  marvelous,  and  the  role  played  by  them 
in  development,  inheritance,  disease,  and  physiological 
function  is  of  the  highest  importance.  In  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  Virchow,  the  great  German  pathol- 
ogist, applied  the  cell  theory  to  the  disease  processes  of 
living  beings,  and  so  fruitful  has  this  concept  been,  that 
medicine  has  uninterruptedly  advanced  along  these  lines. 
The  various  bacteria  are  really  very  minute  cells.  Plants 
and  trees  are  composed  of  millions  of  identical  cells,  but 
it  is.  in  living  animals  that  we  find  the  greatest  diversity 
of  cell-forms,  and  of  special  functions  of  individual  groups 

179 


i8o  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

of  cells.  Each  organ  has  its  special  cells;  the  liver  cells 
secrete  bile;  the  cells  of  the  stomach  secrete  gastric  juice, 
etc.  The  list  might  be  indefinitely  extended.  But  it 
is  in  the  central  nervous  system  that  the  cell  has  reached 
its  highest  development  in  form  and  function.  A  great 
variety  of  cells  can  be  found  in  the  various  portions  of  the 
brain  and  spinal  cord,  and  these,  with  their  interlacing 
network  of  fibers,  each  an  offshoot  from  an  individual 
cell,  form  a  complexity  of  nerve  tracts  that  is  positively 
bewildering  even  to  the  trained  neurologist.  During 
recent  years  the  anatomy  and  physiology  of  the  central 
nervous  system  has  attracted  an  immense  amount  of 
attention.  To  take  an  entire  library  on  nerve  anatomy, 
physiology,  and  pathology,  with  all  the  technicalities,  and 
to  condense  this  materia1  within  the  limits  of  a  single 
chapter,  is  a  formidable  task.  We  must  therefore  ask 
the  indulgence  of  our  readers  for  all  sins  of  omission  that 
this  chapter  may  contain.  Everything  in  the  living 
animal  organism,  muscular  movement,  secretion,  excre- 
tion, breathing,  the  heart-beat,  even  consciousness  itself, 
is  dependent  on  the  central  nervous  system.  Thus  the 
nervous  system  may  be  called  the  master  tissue.  To  the 
ultimate  units  of  this  master  tissue,  the  nerve  cell  itself, 
we  will  first  direct  our  attention. 

A.  The  Normal  Nerve  Cell.  In  Figs,  i  and  2  are 
represented  normal  nerve  cells  from  the  brain  and  spinal 
cord.  One  of  these  (Fig.  i)  is  known  as  a  pyramidal  cell 
from  its  shape;  the  other  (Fig.  2)  is  an  anterior  horn  cell 
from  the  spinal  cord.  In  Fig.  3  is  another  pyramidal 
nerve  cell,  but  a  different  variety  of  stain  has  been  used. 
Nerve  cells  vary  in  shape  and  size,  from  3-^  to 


NERVOUS  SYSTEM  IN  HEALTH  AND  DISEASE      181 


of  an  inch  in  diameter.  Their  number  is  enormous,  the 
figures  amounting  to  hundreds  of  millions.  When 
stained  by  one  of  the  aniline  dyes  (methylene  blue),  a 
normal  nerve  cell  shows  the  following  characteristics. 
In  the  center  of  the  cell  there  is  an  oval,  light  area,  within 
which  lies  a  round,  dark  body.  This  light  area  is  known 
as  the  nucleus;  the  dark  body  within  is  called  the  nucleo- 
lus.  Outside  the  nucleus  and  within  the  cell  body  are 
a  number  of  irregularly  shaped  granules,  arranged  rather 
concentrically  and  called  the  Nissl  bodies,  after  a  dis- 


FlG .  i .  —  Normal 
nerve  cell  from 
the  brain  (Nissl 
Stain). 


FIG.  2.  —  Normal  nerve 
cell  from  spinal  cord 
(Nissl  Stain). 


tinguished  German  neurologist.  Running  through  each 
nerve  cell  and  passing  into  the  various  processes  of  the 
cell  are  a  large  number  of  fine  thread-like  structures, 
called  neuro-fibrils  (not  shown  in  the  illustration).  These 
neuro-fibrils  are  perhaps  the  conducting  substance  of  the 
nervous  system. 

Two  varieties  of  processes  come  from  the  cell  body. 
One  of  these,  called  the  dendrites,  divides  and  sub-divides 
in  an  antler-like  fashion,  and  thus  spreads  over  a  con- 
siderable territory.  The  other,  called  the  axis-cylinder, 


182 


RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 


is  smooth,  but  instead  of  being  grouped  around  the  cell 
like  the  dendrite,  it  runs  out  a  considerable  distance, 
varying  from  the  smallest  fraction  of  an  inch  to  the  length 
of  the  spinal  cord.  A  nerve  cell  can 
have  many  dend rites,  but  it  can  have 
only  one  axis-cylinder.  Upon  the 
dend  rites  may  be  seen  minute  buds 
or  swellings  called  gemmules  (see 
Fig.  3).  The  entire  cell,  with  its  axis- 
cylinder,  dendrites,  gemmules,  etc.,  is 
known  as  a  neurone.  Each  neurone 
FIG  3.— Normal  nerve  is  an  independent  anatomical  and 

cell    from    the    brain 

(Golgi  Stain).  physiological  unit,  but  they  all  inter- 

lace and  connect  with  one  another  in  a  most  complex  and 
bewildering  manner  (see  Fig.  4).  Every  neurone,  in  spite 
of  its  independence,  acts  in  conjunction  with  several  other 
neurones,  and  wide  communications 
are  possible  by  means  of  the  dendrites 
and  axis-cylinders.  The  supporting 
tissue  of  the  neurones  is  known  as 
the  neuroglia.  The  axis-cylinder  is 
composed  of  three  layers;  an  inner 
layer  of  fine  fibers,  a  middle  protect- 
ing layer  arranged  in  segments  and 
known  as  the  medullary  sheath,  and 
an  outer  thin  membrane  called  the 
neurilemma.  The  nerve  cells  make 
up  the  gray  matter  of  the  brain  and 
spinal  cord;  the  white  matter  is  composed  of  the  axis- 
cylinders.  Nerve  impulses  are  carried  to  the  cell  by  the 
dendrites  and  away  from  the  cell  "by  the  axis-cylinder. 


FIG. 4.— Section  through 
the  brain  showing 
layers  of  nerve  cells 
and  their  connections 
(Golgi  Stain). 


NERVOUS  SYSTEM  IN  HEALTH  AND  DISEASE    183 


The  grouping  of  the  axis-cylinders  makes  up  the  central 
nervous  pathways  and  the  nerves  themselves,  which  either 
communicate  with  central  cells  in  the  brain  or  cord  (point 
of  origin),  or  with  the  skin  or  various  organs  of  the  body 
(point  of  distribution).  Like  all  cells  of  the  body,  the  nu- 
trition of  the  nerve  cell  is  dependent  on  its  blood  supply. 
B.  The  Diseased  Nerve  Cell.  In  organic  diseases  of 
the  nervous  system  marked  changes  are  found,  not  only 
in  the  nerve  cell,  but  also  in  the  nerve  fibers.  Figures  5 
and  6  show  very  common  appearances  of  diseased  nerve 


FIG.  5.  — Dis- 
eased nerve 
cell  from  the 
brain  (Nissl 
Stain). 


FIG.  6.  —  Diseased  nerve 
cell  from  spinal  cord 
(Nissl  Stain). 


cells  in  the  brain  and  spinal  cord,  such  as  is  pre-eminently 
found  in  chronic  alcoholism  and  alcoholic  neuritis.  Ob- 
serve that  the  nucleus  is  no  longer  central,  but  is  pushed 
to  one  side,  while  the  Nissl  bodies  have  almost  com- 
pletely disappeared  and  are  replaced  by  a  fine  dust-like 
substance.  Fig.  7  A  shows  the  appearance  of  a  nerve 
cell  when  its  blood  supply  is  cut  off,  the  dend  rites  and 
gemmules  having  in  great  part  disappeared.  In  Fig.  7  B 
is  shown  the  destructive  effect  of  ricin  poisoning.1  Note 

1  Ricin  is  an  alkaloid  found  in  the  seeds  of  the  castor  oil  plant. 


i  S.i 


RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 


the  spindle-shaped  swellings  on  the  dendrites  and  the 
complete  disappearance  of  the  gemmules.  The  above 
are  only  a  few  of  the  changes  that  can  take  place  in  various 
diseases.  In  senile  dementia,  gen- 
eral paralysis,  locomotor  ataxia, 
hemorrhage  or  softening  of  the 
brain  or  spinal  cord,  not  only  are 
the  cells  diseased,  but  the  nerve 
fibers  likewise  suffer  destruction. 
Fever  of  any  kind  has  an  especially 
deleterious  effect  upon  the  nerve 
FIG.  7.  —  Diseased  nerve  cell,  and  this  accounts  for  the  de- 

(  l°lgi 


lirium  of  fever.    Alcohol,  morphine 

A.  Cell  from  which  blood    or  cocaine,  the  bites  of  certain  ven- 

supply  has  been  cut  off.  ... 

B.  Cell  showing  effect  of    omous  snakes  or  spiders,  in  teta- 

ricin  poisoning. 


r    lockjaw>    and    in    certain 

forms  of  melancholia,  marked  changes  are  found  in  the 
nerve  cell.  Chronic  alcoholism,  leading  to  alcoholic  in- 
sanity or  dementia  or  to  alcoholic  neuritis,  is  particularly 
prone  to  injure  the  nerve  cell.  One  man's  drink  flies  to 
his  head,  another  to  his  heels,  but  both  the  incoherent 
speech  and  the  staggering  gait  of  the  intoxicated  individual 
are  due  to  the  influence  of  alcohol  on  the  central 
nervous  system.  In  certain  severe  states  of  exhaustion 
and  fatigue,  the  tired  nerve  cell  becomes  shrunken  and 
diminished  in  size.  When  a  nerve  fiber  is  cut  or  dis- 
eased, its  connected  cell  shows  a  characteristic  change 
(Figs.  5  and  6).  Now  in  all  functional  nervous  diseases, 
such  as  the  various  forms  of  neurasthenia,  hysteria,  and 
psychasthenia,  the  nerve  cells  appear  absolutely  normal. 
In  these  diseases  we  are  dealing,  not  with  any  anatomical 


NERVOUS  SYSTEM  IN  HEALTH  AND  DISEASE    185 

changes  in  the  cell,  but  with  a  disordered  function  of  the 
cell,  a  change  in  its  physiology. 

C.  Nerve  Physiology.  We  have  briefly  reviewed  the 
anatomy  of  the  nerve  cell  and  its  fibers  in  health  and 
disease.  Before  taking  up  the  general  features  of  con- 
sciousness and  cerebral  localization,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  consider  some  essential  facts  of  nerve  physiology. 
Nerve  tissue  possesses  two  fundamental  characteristics. 
One  of  these  is  nerve  conduction,  whereby  motion,  sen- 
sation, and  reflex  action  become  possible ;  the  other  chief 
function  of  nerve  tissue  is  the  storing  up  of  impressions 
and  reproducing  them  in  the  same  order.  This  latter 
forms  what  is  known  as  associative  memory.  The  brain 
is  the  organ  of  mind  or  of  consciousness,  while  the  spinal 
cord  may  be  called  the  organ  of  reflex  action.  Of  course 
this  is  true  only  within  certain  limits,  as  the  various  func- 
tions are  not  isolated  phenomena,  but  there  exists  a  con- 
siderable overlapping.  It  is  generally  believed,  however, 
that  the  spinal  cord  possesses  no  consciousness. 

The  reproduction  of  impressions  is  due  to  the  peculiar 
characteristics  of  the  protoplasm  of  the  nerve  cell,  which 
in  many  ways  acts  like  the  cylinder  of  a  phonograph. 
Nerve  conduction  takes  place  hi  the  axis-cylinder  and  this 
axis-cylinder  resembles  a  copper  wire  through  which  a 
current  of  electricity  is  transmitted.  The  medullary 
sheath  surrounding  the  axis-cylinder  acts  like  an  insulating 
substance,  in  the  same  way  as  an  electric  wire  is  insulated 
with  gutta  percha.  If  the  protoplasm  of  the  nerve  cell  is 
diseased,  it  cannot  store  up  impressions  and  therefore 
cannot  reproduce  them.  Under  these  conditions,  either 
a  loss  of  memory  or  amnesia  results,  or  there  is  a  state  of 


i86  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

mental  enfeeblement  or  dementia.  When  the  axis-cylin- 
der is  cut  or  diseased,  conduction  becomes  impossible, 
and  there  results  loss  of  motion  (paralysis),  or  loss  of 
sensation  (anaesthesia),  or  loss  of  reflex  action. 

Certain  nerves  and  their  endings  in  the  internal  organs 
have  an  isolated  function  of  their  own.  The  olfactory 
nerve,  for  instance,  can  only  react  to  odors;  the  auditory 
nerve  to  air  vibrations  which  are  appreciated  as  sound  in 
the  central  nervous  system;  the  optic  nerve  and  the  retina 
can  only  react  to  the  ether  waves  which  become  sensa- 
tions of  light.  The  optic  nerve  cannot  react  to  sound 
vibrations  nor  the  auditory  nerve  to  ether  waves.  In 
other  words,  we  cannot  see  sound,  nor  hear  light.  Simple 
as  this  may  seem,  yet  this  absolute  reaction  of  a  nerve  to 
a  fixed  stimulus  forms  one  of  the  most  fundamental 
facts  in  modern  neurology,  what  is  known  as  the  doctrine 
of  the  specific  energies  of  nerves. 

If  the  finger  touches  a  sharp  point  or  a  hot  object,  it  is 
drawn  quickly  away.  There  is  a  sensation  of  burning 
or  of  pain.  Both  sensation  and  motion  have  taken  place. 
But  if  the  nerves  in  the  arm  had  been  previously  cut, 
thus  paralyzing  the  arm  and  abolishing  sensation,  no 
pain  or  burning  would  have  been  felt,  neither  would  the 
strongest  effort  of  the  will  have  sufficed  to  have  drawn 
the  arm  away.  What  does  this  mean?  It  means  that 
the  feeling  of  pain  does  not  reside  in  the  fine  nerve 
filaments  of  the  finger  or  in  the  large  nerve  trunks  of  the 
arm,  but  in  the  brain  itself.  The  nerves  merely  conduct 
the  physical  stimulus  of  a  sharp  point  or  a  hot  object 
to  the  brain  and  there  it  is  felt  as  pain.  It  is  the  brain, 
on  feeling  the  painful  sensation,  that  wills  that  the  arm 


NERVOUS  SYSTEM  IN  HEALTH  AND  DISEASE    187 

be  drawn  away.  This  impulse  is  conducted  from  the 
brain  to  the  spinal  cord  and  down  the  nerves  of  the  arm. 
A  short  but  appreciable  and  easily  measurable  length  of 
time  is  needed  for  this  act,  before  the  pain  is  felt  in  the 
central  nervous  system,  appreciated  in  consciousness, 
transformed  into  the  idea  that  the  arm  must  be  pulled 
away  to  prevent  further  injury,  the  reaction  chosen  and 
the  arm  quickly  moved.  The  act  appears  simple,  but 
in  reality  it  is  quite  complex.  It  takes  time.  It  is  really 
a  movement  of  protection,  a  reflex  action.  This  choice 
of  reaction  in  the  brain  is  known  as  the  will. 

Nerve  conduction  can  be  demonstrated  in  another 
way.  If  one  of  the  large  leg  muscles  of  a  frog  with  its 
attached  nerve  be  excised  and  an  electric  current  applied 
to  the  nerve,  the  muscle  will  contract.  This  can  be 
repeated  until  the  muscle  becomes  fatigued.  In  fre- 
quently repeated  stimulation,  the  muscular  contractions 
will  follow  one  another  very  rapidly  and  a  condition 
called  tetanus  will  result.  But  if  the  nerve  be  cut  or  the 
place  where  the  nerve  is  attached  to  the  muscle  (the  so- 
called  motor  end  plate)  be  poisoned  with  curare  (Indian 
arrow  poison),  conduction  is  interfered  with  and  there- 
fore no  muscular  contraction  can  take  place. 

Reflex  actions  are  very  important  in  studying  and  diag- 
nosing the  organic  diseases  of  the  nervous  system.  What 
is  known  as  the  knee  jerk  is  perhaps  the  most  important 
reflex  from  the  standpoint  of  diagnosis.  If  the  patelkr 
tendon  just  below  the  knee  cap  be  struck  a  quick  and 
moderately  sharp  blow  with  a  rubber  hammer,  or  the 
finger-tips,  there  results  a  contraction  of  the  thigh  mus- 
cles and  the  leg  is  thrown  forward.  This  is  the  knee 


1 88  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

jerk.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  consciousness  or  sensa- 
tion as  when  a  finger  is  burnt,  but  is  purely  a  reflex 
action.  The  stimulus  from  the  blow  is  carried  along 
the  nerve  trunks  of  the  leg  to  the  spinal  cord,  there 
it  goes  over  to  the  nerve  fibers  that  connect  with  the 
muscles,  is  transformed  to  a  motor  impulse  which  causes 
the  muscles  to  contract  and  the  kick  results.  This  con- 
nection of  nerve  with  spinal  cord,  and  of  this  latter  with 
the  muscles  again,  forms  what  is  known  as  the  reflex  arc. 
If  this  arc  is  interrupted  along  any  portion  of  its  path,  in 
the  nerves  or  in  the  spinal  cord,  the  knee  jerk  remains 
absent.  This  especially  occurs  in  locomotor  ataxia,  a 
disease  of  the  spinal  cord. 

Other  nerves,  such  as  those  which  control  respiration 
and  the  heart-beat,  seem  to  act  automatically  from  the 
brain  centers  themselves.  The  nerves  which  carry  sen- 
sation are  called  sensory  nerves;  those  which  preside  over 
muscular  movements  are  called  motor  nerves.  Other 
nerves  control  the  secretion  of  various  juices  of  the  body, 
such  as  the  saliva  or  gastric  juice.  These  are  called  se- 
cretory nerves.  The  so-called  trophic  nerves  govern  the 
nutrition  of  the  tissues. 

An  example  of  mixed  nerve  conduction  may  be  cited. 
When  light  falls  on  the  retina,  not  only  is  the  sensation 
of  light  itself  produced,  but  the  pupil  of  the  eye  narrows 
in  an  automatic  manner,  without  the  control  of  the  will. 
Here  we  seem  to  be  dealing,. not  only  with  a  sensory  re- 
action (sensation  of  light),  but  one  which  is  reflex  as  well 
(the  contraction  of  the  pupil).  The  knee  reflex  can  be 
controlled ;  the  pupillary  reflex  cannot  be  controlled. 

It  has  been  shown  that  a  nerve  transmits  impulses  by 


NERVOUS  SYSTEM  IN  HEALTH  AND  DISEASE    189 

means  of  its  axis-cylinder  much  as  a  copper  wire  trans- 
mits electricity,  and  also  that  a  certain  period  of  time  is 
required  for  the  passage  of  the  nerve  impulse.  The 
popular  phrase  "quick  as  thought"  has  therefore  no 
foundation  in  fact.  Thought  is  slow  when  compared  to 
the  rate  of  movement  of  light  (186,000  miles  per  second) 
or  even  sound  (1091  feet  per  second).  In  man  the  rate 
of  transmission  along  nerve  fibers  is  about  thirty-three 
meters  (108  feet)  per  second;  in  the  frog  it  is  about  twenty- 
eight  meters  (92  feet)  per  second.  By  this  we  see  that  the 
reactions  to  pain  or  other  sensations  are  not  instantaneous 
as  is  popularly  supposed,  but  that  an  appreciable  length 
of  time  is  necessary  for  stimuli  to  be  appreciated  in  con- 
sciousness as  such,  and  for  sensory  impulses  to  be  trans- 
formed into  motor  reactions.  When  something  is  "  willed  " 
this  time  interval  becomes  lengthened.  The  reaction 
time  is  greatly  increased  in  old  age,  where  not  only  the 
rate  of  nerve  transmission,  but  the  mental  processes,  be- 
come slower. 

The  storing  up  of  impressions  in  the  central  nervous 
system  is  based  upon  the  principle  that  certain  molecular 
changes  are  produced,  which  continue  after  the  original 
stimulus  has  been  removed.  Of  the  simpler  examples, 
the  best  are  those  of  after  images  on  the  retina,  or  the 
"feeling"  of  a  day's  skating  remaining  in  the  limbs  long 
after  the  exercise  has  ceased.  The  highest  example  of 
the  storing  up  of  external  impressions  is  found  in  the 
phenomena  of  memory. 

D.  The  Anatomy  and  Functions  of  the  Nervous  System. 
The  nervous  system  is  composed  of  the  brain,  spinal 
cord,  the  peripheral  and  cranial  nerves,  and  the  sym- 


190  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

pathetic  nerves.  The  course  of  the  central  pathways  in 
the  brain  and  spinal  cord  and  the  ramifications  of  the 
peripheral  nerves  are  very  complex  and  bewildering. 
These  central  pathways,  however,  have  been  followed 
and  mapped  out  in  diseases  of  the  central  nervous  system, 
in  its  embryological  development  and  also  in  experiments 
on  animals,  until  now  the  majority  of  these  are  fairly  well 
recognized.  The  pathways  themselves  are  made  up  of 
the  axis-cylinders  that  come  from  nerve  cells.  Although 
these  axis-cylinders  seem  to  run  in  all  directions,  yet  each 
central  pathway  is  sharply  limited,  being  derived  from 
cells  that  occupy  fixed  areas  in  the  brain.  Each  central 
pathway  is  called  a  system.  Now  in  diseases  of  the  cells 
or  of  the  brain  tissue  that  contains  the  cells,  these  fiber 
systems  undergo  degeneration  and  by  means  of  proper 
staining  methods  can  be  followed  along  their  course. 
In  embryological  development,  the  fiber  systems  of  the 
brain  do  not  develop  or  become  medullated  at  the 
same  period,  and  here  also  we  have  a  method  of  follow- 
ing the  course  of  the  brain  fibers.  This  last  fact  is 
of  great  importance  in  the  architecture  of  the  nervous 
system,  as  was  pointed  out  by  the  German  neurologist 
Flechsig. 

A  nervous  system  is  the  property  of  all  vertebrates  and 
can  be  found  in  a  rudimentary  form  in  invertebrates  very 
low  in  the  animal  scale,  such  as  the  jelly  fish.  The  ner- 
vous system  has  well  been  called  the  master  tissue,  and  to 
it  may  be  applied  the  quaint  description  of  the  heart  by 
William  Harvey,  the  immortal  discoverer  of  the  circula- 
tion of  the  blood.  "It  is  the  household  divinity  which, 
discharging  its  functions,  nourishes,  cherishes,  quickens 


NERVOUS  SYSTEM  IN  HEALTH  AND  DISEASE    191 

the  whole  body,  and  is  indeed  the  foundation  of  life,  the 
source  of  all  action."1 

The  brain  is  contained  within  the  skullcap  in  order 
that  its  delicate  structure  may  be  well  protected  from 
injury.  Further  protection  is  afforded  by  three  mem- 
branes, with  which  the  brain  is  entirely  surrounded. 
The  most  external  of  these  membranes,  and  lying  just 
beneath  the  inner  table  of  the  skull,  is  called  the  dura 
mater.  Beneath  this  is  the  arachnoid  membrane,  which 
is  a  very  fine  structure  made  up  almost  entirely  of 
interlacing  small  blood-vessels,  and  so-called  because  it 
resembles  a  spider's  web.  Beneath  the  arachnoid,  and 
covering  the  entire  surface  of  the  brain,  dipping  down 
even  into  its  fissures,  is  the  pia  mater.  The  spinal  cord 
lies  within  the  spinal  column,  which  is  made  up  of  the 
individual  vertebral  bones  superimposed  upon  one  an- 
other like  a  pile  of  checkers.  Between  each  vertebra  is 
a  cartilaginous  membrane.  This  not  only  is  protection 
afforded  the  spinal  cord,  but  there  is  also  an  extreme 
degree  of  elasticity,  so  that  the  body  may  be  bent  in  all 
directions.  Like  the  brain,  the  spinal  cord  is  surrounded 
by  the  same  three  membranes.  The  nerve  tracts  of  the 
spinal  cord  run  lengthwise,  and  thus  connect  the  brain 
centers  (the  cerebrum  or  hemispheres),  and  the  medulla, 
with  the  nerves  that  go  to  the  muscles. 

The  brain  has  several  subdivisions.  Chief  of  these  are 
the  two  hemispheres  or  the  cerebrum,  which  are  connected 
by  a  bridge  of  white  substance  called  the  corpus  callosum. 
Within  the  hemispheres  can  be  found  the  central  motor 
tracts.  The  cerebrum  itself  is  divided  into  lobes,  the 

1  William  Harvey  On  the  Circulation  of  the  Blood,  chap.  viii. 


1 92  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

frontal,  parietal,  occipital,  temporal,  and  within  one  of 
the  great  fissures  of  the  brain  that  separates  the  parietal 
from  the  temporal  portions  lies  another  lobe  called  the 
Island  of  Reil.  This  is  not  visible  externally.  Below 
the  cerebrum  is  the  pons  Varolii,  below  this  the  medulla, 
and  just  back  of  the  medulla  lies  the  cerebellum.  The 
medulla  contains  the  centers  for  respiration  and  the  con- 
trol of  the  heart-beat,  while  the  cerebellum  presides  over 
equilibrium. 

The  sympathetic  nervous  system  consists  of  chains  of 
ganglia,  or  aggregations  of  nerve  cells,  lying  on  each  side 
of  the  spinal  column.  At  the  base  of  the  brain  lie  the  so- 
called  cranial  nerves.  Some  of  these  are  for  the  special 
senses,  such  as  the  olfactory  nerve  for  smell,  the  optic 
nerve  for  sight,  the  auditory  nerve  for  hearing;  some 
supply  the  motions  of  the  eyeball,  and  the  mimic  move- 
ments of  the  face;  still  others  control  vital  functions,  such 
as  swallowing  and  the  heart-beat. 

The  cerebrum  is  made  up  of  white  and  gray  matter, 
the  former  consisting  of  nerve  fibers,  the  latter  of  nerve 
cells.  The  gray  matter  is  called  the  cortex  and  lies  in  a 
folded  manner  on  the  surface  of  the  brain,  thus  greatly 
increasing  its  area.  Within  the  spinal  cord  this  order  is 
reversed;  it  is  the  white  matter  that  is  external  and  the 
gray  matter  within.  The  prominent  raised  folds  of  gray 
matter  in  the  brain  are  called  convolutions;  the  grooves 
between  the  convolutions  are  called  fissures.  In  the 
lower  animals,  even  in  the  dog  and  the  higher  apes,  and 
in  cases  of  lack  of  brain  development,  such  as  idiocy,  the 
cortex  is  comparatively  smooth.  In  dementia  the  con- 
volutions are  small  or  atrophied.  Thus  the  area  of  gray 


NERVOUS  SYSTEM  IN  HEALTH  AND  DISEASE    193 

matter  and  the  size  of  the  convolutions  can  be  taken  as  a 
measure  of  intelligence.  The  brain  weighs  on  the  average 
about  1415  grams  (50  ounces)  in  the  adult  male,  and 
about  1360  grams  (44.5  ounces)  in  the  adult  female.  In 
idiots  and  imbeciles,  in  dementia  and  in  cases  of  low  in- 
telligence, the  weight  is  much  less,  sometimes  sinking  as 
low  as  900  grams  (28.1  ounces).  In  individuals  of  great 
intellectual  capacity,  such  as  in  Daniel  Webster  or  in  the 
naturalist  Cuvier,  there  was  a  great  increase  in  weight. 

Within  the  spinal  cord  there  is  a  minute  central  canal, 
which  expands  into  several  connecting  chambers  in  the 
brain,  known  as  ventricles.  These  ventricles  act  as 
kind  of  a  drainage  system.  The  activity  of  the  brain 
depends  upon  the  blood  supply,  which  is  quite  complex. 
The  arteries  of  the  brain  are  very  ingeniously  arranged 
in  a  hexagonal  shape  at  the  base  of  the  brain.  This 
hexagon  of  arteries  is  known  as  the  circle  of  Willis.  If 
one  artery  becomes  plugged,  the  circulation  can  go  on 
through  the  other  branches. 

The  nerve  tracts  of  the  brain  are  very  complex.  Some 
of  these  control  motion,  such  as  the  pyramidal  tract,  others 
control  sensation,  while  still  others,  known  as  the  asso- 
ciation fibers,  seem  to  be  at  the  basis  of  intellect  and 
associative  memory.  In  right-handed  individuals  the 
intellectual  functions  are  localized  on  the  left  side  of  the 
brain.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  most  of  the  fiber  tracts 
cross  over  to  the  other  side.  A  right-handed  person  there- 
fore may  be  said  to  be  left-brained. 

The  brain  is  the  organ  of  consciousness  or  mind;  the 
spinal  cord  is  merely  a  conducting  mechanism  for  the 
control  of  motion  and  sensation  by  the  higher  brain  cen- 


194  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

ters.  If  a  pigeon  or  frog  be  deprived  of  its  brain,  it  will 
live,  but  its  actions  will  resemble  a  machine.  In  other 
words  it  will  become  a  reflex  automaton,  originating 
nothing,  learning  nothing.  Not  a  trace  of  memory  can 
be  found.  It  will  show  nothing  but  motor  activity. 
Food  put  before  it  will  be  unnoticed,  but  if  the  food  be 
placed  in  the  mouth,  it  will  be  swallowed.  In  man, 
when  the  brain  is  profoundly  diseased,  as  in  dementia 
or  idiocy,  there  can  be  found  some  of  the  phenomena  of 
the  brainless  animal.  When  sleep  results  in  a  healthy 
individual,  there  is  a  low  degree  of  consciousness,  other- 
wise dreaming  could  not  take  place.  If  there  is  a  hemor- 
rhage in  the  brain,  or  the  head  be  struck  a  severe  blow, 
complete  unconsciousness  results.  All  these  facts  prove 
that  the  mechanism  of  consciousness  depends  upon  the 
integrity  of  the  brain  tissue. 

Cerebral  localization,  or  the  mapping  out  of  various 
functions  on  the  surface  of  the  brain,  has  made  amazing 
strides  in  the  last  quarter  century.  This  has  been  the 
result  partly  of  autopsies  on  pathological  brain  lesions 
(hemorrhages,  tumors,  softenings)  in  man,  and  partly  of 
excision  and  electrical  stimulation  experiments  on  the 
cortex  of  dogs  and  monkeys.  Figure  8  is  a  diagrammatic 
representation  of  the  principal  areas  on  the  surface  of  the 
brain.  The  area  marked  A  controls  the  movements  of 
the  various  muscles  of  the  body.  Here  are  localized 
the  large  motor  cells  whose  axis-cylinders  dip  down  in  a 
fan-like  manner  into  the  white  matter  of  the  brain,  curve 
together  in  the  portion  known  as  the  internal  capsule, 
and  finally,  after  a  more  or  less  devious  course,  they 
reach  the  medulla.  Here  the  fibers  from  the  right  side 


NERVOUS  SYSTEM  IN  HEALTH  AND  DISEASE    195 

of  the  brain  cross  over  to  the  left  and  vice  versa,  and  then 
pursue  their  way  down  the  spinal  cord.  This  system  of 
fibers  in  the  brain  and  cord  is  known  as  the  pyramidal 
tract;  the  place  in  the  medulla  where  they  cross  to  the 


FIG.  8. — Left  hemisphere  of  the  human  brain,  show- 
ing the  localization  of  various  functions,  according 
to  the  latest  researches. 

A.  Motor  area   for  movements  of  limbs,  trunk,  head, 
face  and  eyes. 

B.  Sensory  area  for  touch,  muscular,  pain,  tempera- 
ture, and  form  senses. 

C.  Motor  speech  center. 

D.  Hearing  center. 

E.  Center  for  auditory  memories. 

F.  Center  for  visual  memories. 

G.  Visual  center. 

H.  Writing  center  (  ?) 
I.   Center  for  equilibrium  (the  cerebellum). 
(The  centers   for  smell  and  taste   are   at  the  base  of 
the  brain.) 

opposite  side  is  called  the  decussation  of  the  pyramids. 
A  hemorrhage  in  any  portion  of  the  pyramidal  tract  hi 
the  brain  causes,  therefore,  a  complete  or  partial  paraly- 
sis of  the  opposite  portion  of  the  body.  This  hemor- 


196  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

rhage  is  accompanied  by  a  sudden  loss  of  consciousness 
and  is  known  as  an  apoplectic  shock. 

The  portion  behind  the  motor  area,  marked  B,  is  the 
cortical  center  for  sensation  of  all  kinds  and  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  nature  of  objects  by  touch.  In  the  blind  deaf- 
mutes,  such  as  Laura  Bridgman  or  Helen  Keller,  this 
center  is  greatly  developed,  as  their  education  was  entirely 
along  the  line  of  touch  sensations.  C  is  known  as  Broca's 
convolution.  It  is  the  center  for  motor  speech  and  is 
localized  on  the  left  side  of  the  brain.  A  lesion  here 
causes  what  is  known  as  motor  aphasia,  in  which  the 
patient  becomes  dumb  or  is  able  to  make  only  a  few 
meaningless  sounds,  yet  can  perfectly  comprehend  what 
is  said.  D  is  the  hearing  center.  Disease  of  this  center 
causes  complete  deafness.  E  is  the  center  where  auditory 
memories  or  the  memories  of  the  sound  of  words  are  stored 
up.  Disease  of  this  portion  of  the  brain  causes  what  is 
known  as  sensory  aphasia.  The  patient  can  talk  freely, 
can  hear  what  is  said,  but  the  words  are  meaningless  to 
him.  He  hears  the  words  but  does  not  comprehend 
them;  it  is  as  if  one  spoke  in  a  foreign  language  of  which 
he  was  completely  ignorant.  At  F  the  visual  memories 
are  stored  up.  In  a  lesion  here,  objects  are  seen  but  not 
recognized;  it  causes  what  is  known  as  mind  blindness. 
G  is  the  visual  center,  where  all  the  fibers  of  the  optic 
nerve  terminate.  Disease  here,  on  account  of  the  peculiar 
crossing  of  the  optic  nerve,  causes  a  blindness  of  one  half 
of  each  eye.  H  is  the  so-called  writing  center.  In  a 
lesion  of  this  portion  of  the  brain  there  is  inability  to  write, 
known  as  agraphia.  7  is  the  cerebellum,  the  center  of 
equilibrium.  Diseases  of  the  cerebellum  cause  the  in- 


NERVOUS  SYSTEM  IN  HEALTH  AND  DISEASE    197 

dividual  to  lose  all  sense  of  the  co-ordination  of  muscular 
movements  necessary  for  the  equilibrium  of  the  body  and 
therefore  he  reels  like  a  drunken  man.  The  higher 
psychical  centers  for  reason,  memory,  and  association 
seem  to  be  localized  in  the  frontal  lobe  of  the  brain, 
anterior  to  the  motor  area  (A)  and  above  the  motor 
speech  center  (C).  In  dementia  and  in  idiocy  this  is  the 
portion  that  is  most  profoundly  diseased.  The  mapping- 
out  of  these  centers  in  the  brain  has  been  of  great  prac- 
tical value  in  the  localization  of  brain  tumors  and  their 
successful  treatment  by  surgical  operation. 

As  the  individual  progresses  from  childhood  to  adult 
life,  there  is  an  increase  hi  the  weight  of  the  brain  and  in 
the  number  of  association  fibers.  In  old  age  the  brain 
atrophies  or  grows  smaller  and  the  nerve  cells  degenerate. 
The  speech  center  is  highly  developed  in  man,  for  with- 
out speech  all  abstract  reasoning  and  thought  are  mani- 
festly impossible.  All  great  thinkers  and  writers  seem 
to  have  possessed  a  large  vocabulary,  while  the  language 
of  the  savage  consists  of  only  a  few  hundred  words.  The 
poet  has  well  said, 

"  He  gave  man  speech  and  speech  created  thought, 
Which  is  the  measure  of  the  universe." 

Unless  it  has  been  abused  to  an  irreparable  point,  so 
that  organic  changes  occur,  the  nervous  system  possesses 
great  recuperative  powers.  Nervous  fatigue  is  much 
benefited  by  sleep,  while  protracted  insomnia  or  a  restless, 
broken  night,  has  a  particularly  pernicious  effect  on  the 
general  feeling  of  well-being,  not  only  in  the  neurasthenic 
state,  but  in  perfect  health  as  well.  Fatigue  may  take  on 


1 98  RELIGION  AND   MEDICINE 

a  distinctly  pathological  aspect  such  as  restlessness,  mus- 
cular twitchings,  tremors;  various  fancies  may  take  pos- 
session of  the  mind  which  may  degenerate  into  pathological 
obsessions.  As  the  fatigue  increases,  there  develops  that 
peculiar  feeling  of  incapacity  and  the  disinclination  for 
physical  and  muscular  exercise,  symptoms  which  are  very 
characteristic  of  the  neurasthenic  states.  The  restlessness 
of  school  children  at  the  end  of  a  morning  or  afternoon 
session,  as  shown  in  the  movement  of  the  lips,  eye- 
brows, forehead,  the  picking  at  the  fingers,  is  due  solely 
to  fatigue.  Thus  we  see  how  necessary  it  is  that  fatigue 
be  neutralized  by  periods  of  relaxation,  either  physical 
exercise  or  sleep. 

Many  theories  have  been  proposed  to  explain  sleep, 
but  all  of  these,  when  critically  examined,  are  found  to 
have  their  vulnerable  points.  The  most  pertinent  inter- 
pretation of  sleep,  from  the  purely  biological  standpoint, 
is  that  of  Claparede,1  who  concludes  that  sleep  is  a  func- 
tion of  defense,  a  physiological  device,  its  purpose  being 
to  protect  the  organism  against  fatigue.  Hence  the  need 
of  sleep  is  frequently  felt  before  fatigue  sets  in.  This  is 
an  admirable  mechanism,  splendidly  fitted  to  neutralize 
activity  with  repose,  as  it  has  been  shown  by  Hodge  that 
prolonged  activity  leading  to  severe  fatigue  induces  dis- 
tinct organic  changes  in  the  nerve  cells,  and  that  after  a 
certain  period  of  rest  the  cells  resume  their  normal 
appearance. 

1  Ed  Claparede,  A  Biological  Theory  of  Sleep,  Archives  de  Psycholo- 
gic, IV,  1906. 


CHAPTER  IX 

DISEASES  OF  THE  SUBCONSCIOUS 

AROUND  the  problem  of  the  subconscious  is  grouped 
the  greater  part  of  the  researches  and  revelations  of 
modern  abnormal  psychology.  The  term  has  been  used 
rather  loosely,  however,  and  possesses  many  meanings 
for  layman  and  scientist  alike.  It  has  proved  a  con- 
venient talisman  with  which  many  of  the  newer  medico- 
religious  movements  have  conjured;  it  has  become  a 
byword  to  the  layman  to  explain  to  his  own  satisfaction 
many  of  the  mysterious  workings  of  the  mind;  even  by 
the  psychologist  there  has  been  an  unfortunate  tendency 
to  use  the  term  rather  loosely.  Before  we  proceed  further 
it  will  be  well  to  arrive  at  a  clear  understanding  of  what 
constitutes  the  subconscious  mind  and  to  define  its  limita- 
tions. The  problem  is  a  difficult  one,  not  only  because 
of  the  varied  ideas  of  different  observers,  but  also  because 
of  the  extreme  complexity  of  the  phenomena  presented 
by  subconscious  states.  Professor  Jastrow  has  recently 
published  a  volume  on  the  various  aspects  of  the  sub- 
conscious, both  normal  and  abnormal,1  and  Dr.  Morton 
Prince's  case  of  Miss  Beauchamp  in  his  "Dissociation 
of  a  Personality"  analyzes  in  an  illuminating  manner 
the  changes  of  personality  brought  about  by  subconscious 
or,  as  psychologists  prefer  to  call  them,  dissociated  states. 

1  The  Subconscious,  1906. 
199 


200  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

On  account  of  the  diversity  of  the  views  concerning  the 
subconscious,  Dr.  Prince  has  recently l  invited  a  dis- 
cussion on  the  question  by  several  eminent  psychologists. 
The  dominant  theories  of  the  subconscious  have  ema- 
nated either  from  physicians  or  from  psychologists.  The 
former  have  naturally  dealt  with  the  abnormal  aspects 
of  the  subject;  the  latter  with  its  normal  manifestations. 
The  view-point  has  been  different  in  each  case,  whether  the 
subconscious  phenomena  are  studied  in  the  diseased  or  in 
the  normal  individual.  The  so-called  field  of  conscious- 
ness is  that  portion  of  our  mental  life  of  which  one  is 
aware  by  ordinary  introspection.  What  lies  outside  or 
beneath  this  conscious  field  is  split  off  or,  in  psychological 
terms,  dissociated  from  consciousness.  In  other  words, 
it  is  extra-conscious  or  subconscious.  To  call  this  a  dis- 
sociated portion  of  consciousness  is  more  accurate  and 
scientific,  for  then  we  do  not  pledge  ourselves  in  placing 
this  extra  conscious  field  in  any  portion  of  what  we  may 
call  the  mental  space.  The  stream  of  thought  is  made 
up  of  consciousness,  and  consciousness  itself  is  the  result 
of  the  energy  of  the  central  nervous  system.  By  some 
consciousness  is  considered  the  energy  itself;  by  others  as 
running  parallel  with  it.  This  interaction  of  the  mind 
on  the  body,  and  the  body  on  the  mind,  forms  one  of  the 
most  important  and  fascinating  fields  of  physiological 
psychology.  When  the  nervous  system  ceases  to  func- 
tionate, consciousness  likewise  disappears,  as  in  profound 
sleep  or  in  ether  or  chloroform  narcosis.  A  sound  sleep 
is  dreamless  and  dreams  only  occur  in  the  half -waking 
state.  When  the  nerve  cells  are  diseased,  as  in  the 

1  Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology,  vol.  ii,  Nos.  i  and  a,  1907. 


2OI 

various  insanities  and  in  poisoning  by  such  drugs  as 
alcohol  or  morphine,  consciousness  becomes  distorted  and 
hallucinations  or  sense  deceptions  arise.  When  certain 
conscious  processes  go  on  below  the  "threshold  of  con- 
sciousness," we  are  not  aware  of  them  and  here  we  have 
the  physiological  explanation  of  unconscious  thinking. 
In  other  words,  we  are  dealing  with  subconscious  processes. 
By  the  "threshold  of  consciousness"  is  meant  the  lowest 
limit  of  thought  of  which  we  have  any  perception.  If 
ideas  or  thoughts  are  not  of  sufficient  intensity  to  be  per- 
ceived by  us,  they  remain  below  this  threshold;  they 
are  subconscious  or  dissociated.  This  split-off,  subcon- 
scious, dissociated  portion  may  be  a  marginal  state  or  a 
fringe  of  consciousness  in  its  normal  sense,  or,  if  diseased 
or  abnormal,  this  marginal  state  grows  larger  and,  as  a 
natural  consequence,  the  dissociated  field  of  conscious- 
ness enlarges.  This  process,  of  course,  narrows  the  field 
of  normal  consciousness,  and  we  shall  see  later  on  how 
important  a  part  this  narrowing  of  the  field  of  conscious- 
ness plays  in  hysteria. 

Therefore,  the  subconscious  may  mean  one  of  several 
things : 

1.  Any  portion  of  consciousness  outside  the  field  of 
attention. 

2.  Ideas  split  off  from  the  main  stream  of  consciousness. 

3.  Split-off  personalities. 

4.  Forgotten  experiences,  i.e.,  experiences  and  memories 
out  of  mind. 

5.  A  great  tank  of  consciousness  exists  within  us,  but 
we  are  conscious  of  only  a  portion  of  it  (the  subliminal 
self). 


202  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

6.  Unconscious  brain  action  or  thinking. 

It  would  lead  us  too  far  into  technicalities  to  discuss 
the  complex  theories  given  above,  of  which  only  the 
simplest  outlines  are  indicated.  One  fundamental  idea 
seems  to  underlie  them  all,  however,  namely,  that  certain 
portions  of  consciousness  are  or  may  become  detached 
from  the  main  stream.  These  portions  have  all  the 
attributes  of  our  entire  conscious  stream  of  thought,  and 
the  difference  in  interpretation  becomes  either  purely 
psychological  or  purely  physiological.  The  psychological 
interpretation  is  the  one  usually  accepted  to-day.  A  lack 
of  feeling,  of  "  awareness,"  on  the  part  of  the  individual 
is  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  these  subconscious 
or  dissociated  states.  For  our  purpose,  however,  it  will 
be  best  to  consider  the  subconscious  as  consisting  of  dis- 
sociated states,  memories,  emotions,  and  personalities;  in 
fact,  any  portion  of  mental  activity  in  its  entirety,  split  off 
from  the  main  stream  of  consciousness.  These  dissociated 
states  have  a  mental  activity  and  independence  in  everyway 
analogous  to  our  normal  conscious  states.  Sometimes  only 
ideas  are  dissociated,  and  then  the  patient  is  tortured  by 
fixed  ideas  or  obsessions  which  act  as  a  mental  thorn. 
In  other  cases,  it  is  the  emotions  and  emotional  storms 
that  take  place,  as  shown  by  attacks  of  irritability,  excite- 
ment, depression,  or  even  convulsions.  Sometimes  cer- 
tain memories  are  dissociated  and  then  we  have  the 
condition  known  as  amnesia.  Entire  groups  of  thought 
may  be  split  off  and  in  these  cases  the  phenomena  of  auto- 
matic writing  or  crystal  gazing  may  take  place.  Finally, 
in  the  most  highly  developed  forms  the  personality  itself, 
with  its  thoughts,  memories,  emotions,  complete  in  them- 


DISEASES  OF  THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  203 

selves,  may  become  completely  dissociated,  and  it  is  here 
that  we  have  the  wonderful  phenomena  of  double  or 
multiple  personality. 

Before  we  enter  into  a  discussion  of  abnormal  subcon- 
scious phenomena,  it  will  be  well  to  inquire  briefly  into 
the  question  —  Do  subconscious  states  exist  normally 
or  are  they  always  abnormal?  Dr.  Prince  says:1  "The 
ease  with  which  the  mind  in  perfectly  healthy  persons  can 
be  dissociated  and  the  dissociated  states  synthetized  .  .  . 
shows  that  subconscious  synthetized  states  are  not  always 
evidences  of  disease."  Janet  strongly  maintains  the 
pathological  nature  of  subconscious  states,  but  experi- 
mental evidence  shows  that  the  process  may  be  purely 
a  normal  one. 

Before  proceeding  further,  therefore,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  give  a  few  examples  of  the  normal  subconscious 
working.  In  every-day  language,  this  is  known  as  "ab- 
sent-mindedness." People  speak  of  doing  things  uncon- 
sciously, when  in  reality  they  mean  subconsciously.  A 
woman  in  opening  eggs  throws  the  yolk  away  and  pro- 
ceeds to  beat  the  shells;  another  discards  the  inside  of  a 
banana  and  eats  the  skin;  a  third,  hi  working,  stirs  with 
the  poker  of  the  stove  instead  of  a  spoon.  The  perennial 
joke  of  the  professor  inquiring  for  himself  at  his  own 
house  is  another  example  of  absent-mindedness  or  dis- 
sociation of  consciousness.  These  are  very  simple  ex- 
amples. Far  more  complex,  but  hi  reality  having  the  same 
underlying  mechanism,  is  the  following.  When  one  is 

1  Address  delivered  before  the  Section  on  Abnormal  Psychology  at 
the  St.  Louis  Congress  of  Arts  and  Sciences  —  The  Psychological  Review, 
March-May,  1905. 


204  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

intently  absorbed  in  the  contents  of  an  interesting  book 
one  becomes  totally  oblivious  to  passing  sights  and  sounds. 
This  is  what  occurs  in  hypnosis.  But  is  this  real  oblivion, 
is  consciousness  totally  blotted  out,  or  is  it  merely  nar- 
rowed upon  one  topic  and  has  it  reached  a  state  of  dissoci- 
ation ?  Let  us  see.  While  a  person  is  reading,  the  telephone 
bell  rings  or  some  one  asks  a  question.  He  apparently 
pays  no  attention  to  it.  Yet  it  is  really  perceived,  but 
perceived  by  the  subconscious  or  dissociated  self.  A 
few  minutes  later  he  comes  to  himself,  suddenly  starts 
out  of  his  day  dream  or  reverie,  shakes  himself  together, 
answers  the  telephone  without  knowing  why,  or  gives  an 
intelligent  reply  to  something  he  knows  not  what.  When 
the  bell  rang  or  the  question  was  asked,  his  consciousness 
was  dissociated;  when  he  answered  the  bell  or  replied  to 
the  question,  the  consciousness  had  become  synthetized 
or  reassociated.  The  fact  that  an  intelligent  reaction 
did  take  place  is  proof  that  he  subconsciously  perceived 
the  stimulus  which  brought  forth  the  reaction.  Now 
the  disease  hysteria,  the  phenomena  of  hypnosis  or  of 
multiple  personality,  of  amnesia,  are  merely  more  or  less 
protracted  forms  of  this  absent-  mindedness.  The  under- 
lying principle  of  all  absent-mindedness  is  dissociation. 
The  striking  points  of  all  are  these  —  that  the  gaps  hi 
memory  or  personality  or  thought  are  not  real  gaps  at 
all,  but  merely  chips  of  consciousness  carrying  memories 
or  ideas  that  have  floated  off  from  the  main  stream  of 
conscious  thought.  In  other  words,  they  are  subcon- 
scious, dissociated.  These  subconscious  fragments  of 
consciousness  in  their  own  narrow  way  act  like  the  full 
content  of  the  stream  of  thought. 


205 

Take  a  still  more  complex  condition  from  the  abnormal 
standpoint.  In  the  case  of  Miss  Beauchamp  (The  Dis- 
sociation of  a  Personality},  one  of  the  personalities  who 
called  herself  "Sally"  was  wont  to  do  all  sorts  of  pranks, 
of  which  the  original  Miss  B.  knew  nothing.  On  one 
occasion  Sally  smoked  a  cigarette,  and  when  the  Sally 
personality  changed  to  Miss  B.  there  was  no  recollection 
of  the  act.  But  when  Miss  B.  was  asked  to  gaze  into 
a  crystal,  she  saw  therein  a  vision  of  herself  smoking 
a  cigarette.  She  was  naturally  horrified  at  seeing 
herself  at  an  act  of  which  she  had  absolutely  no  rec- 
ollection. Now  what  had  happened?  Sally  was  one  of 
the  dissociated  personalities  and  although  she  knew 
the  acts  of  Miss  B.,  yet  Miss  B.  knew  nothing  of  Sally. 
The  crystal  gazing  had  produced  in  Miss  B.  a  state  of 
abstraction  or  absent-mindedness,  and  in  consequence 
there  arose  a  reversion  to  the  Sally  personality  with  all 
her  acts.  Miss  B.  by  this  means  was  able  to  penetrate 
to  regions  that  her  conscious,  waking  memory  was  unable 
to  reach.  The  dissociation  had  disappeared  and  with  it 
came  the  vision  of  Sally's  behavior.  On  another  occasion 
Sally  destroyed  some  bank  notes  belonging  to  Miss  B., 
and  the  latter  was  astonished  to  see  herself,  in  the  crystal 
vision,  in  the  act  of  tearing  the  bank  notes  into  fragments. 
In  reality  we  are  dealing  in  both  these  episodes  with  sub- 
conscious hallucinations.  Miss  B.  was  the  unfortunate 
victim  of  her  subconscious  behavior  of  which  she  knew 
nothing  and  consequently  was  unable  to  understand  her 
conduct  in  the  Sally  personality.  We  have  thus  indicated 
and  explained,  as  clearly  as  the  nature  of  the  subject  will 
allow,  what  is  meant  by  the  subconscious  in  all  its 


206  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

degrees,  from  the  most  simple  manifestations  of  every -day 
life  to  the  complex  phenomena  of  multiple  personality. 
In  an  interesting  little  volume,  Freud  has  shown  how 
great  an  influence  is  exerted  by  the  subconscious  on  our 
every-day  life.1  According  to  him  all  dreams  originate 
in  our  subconscious  mental  life,  while  certain  familiar 
daily  events,  the  forgetting  of  proper  names,  the  slips  of 
the  tongue,  etc.,  are  also  examples  of  this  mental  dissocia- 
tion. Thus  there  are  no  gaps  between  the  normal  and 
abnormal  subconscious  workings;  the  phenomena  shade 
almost  imperceptibly  into  one  another. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  briefly  discuss  the  abnormal 
manifestations  of  mental  dissociation,  or  what  we  shall  call 
the  diseases  of  the  subconscious.  We  have  given  ex- 
amples and  explanations  of  the  normal  workings  of  the 
subconscious,  all  of  them  taken  from  the  happenings  of 
every-day  life  with  one  exception,  and  this  was  introduced 
in  order  to  complete  the  series  of  subconscious  phenomena 
from  the  simple  to  the  complex.  It  now  remains  to  point 
out  the  principal  aspects  of  the  abnormal  workings  of  the 
subconscious,  their  causes  and  the  indications  for  a 
rational  scientific  treatment.  For  it  is  the  diseases  of  the 
subconscious  that  in  all  ages  have  offered  the  most  baffling 
problems  to  physicians.  The  many-sided  disease,  hysteria, 
is  dependent  upon  a  dissociation  of  consciousness;  the 
phenomena  of  hypnosis  can  be  utilized  as  powerful 
therapeutic  and  experimental  factors;  neurasthenia  is 
the  curse  of  modern  civilization;  and  lately  there  has 
arisen  the  conception  of  psychasthenia,  as  indicating  the 
peculiar  mental  state  accompanying  obsessions  and  fixed 

1  Zur  Psychopaihologie  des  Altagslebens,  Berlin,  1904. 


DISEASES  OF  THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  207 

ideas.  The  cases  of  multiple  personality  and  of  amnesia 
(a  systematized  loss  of  memory)  are  dependent  upon 
dissociations  of  consciousness,  and  the  cure  of  these  con- 
ditions by  proper  methods  is  one  of  the  triumphs  of  purely 
psychological  principles.  These  are  all  diseases  or  arti- 
facts or  abnormal  aspects  of  the  subconscious.  The  very 
mention  of  their  names  at  once  indicates  their  importance. 
Hypnosis  is  not  really  a  disease  of  the  subconscious,  but 
is  rather  an  artificially  induced  state  of  absent-mindedness. 
It  is  so  important  that  a  separate  chapter  will  be  devoted 
to  its  consideration.  The  most  important  of  all  the  dis- 
eases of  dissociation  or  of  the  subconscious  is  that  pro- 
tean malady  called  hysteria.  Many-sided  it  really  is,  for  in 
no  nervous  disease  are  the  symptoms  so  diverse.  Hysteria 
can  simulate  almost  anything  from  the  paralysis  of  brain 
disease  to  complete  loss  of  voice  (aphonia).  Two  of  the 
most  distinguished  investigators,  Prince  in  America  and 
Janet  in  France,  look  upon  hysteria  as  a  dissociation  of 
the  personality.  Dr.  Prince1  says:  "Hysteria  is  a  mani- 
festation of  disintegration,  and  the  neurasthenic  state, 
one  of  the  stigmata  of  hysteria,  is  pathologically  a  type 
of  dissociation  of  the  personality."  According  to  Janet,2 
"Hysteria  is  a  form  of  mental  depression  characterized 
by  the  retraction  of  the  field  of  personal  consciousness  and 
a  tendency  to  the  dissociation  and  emancipation  of  the 
systems  of  ideas  and  functions  that  constitute  personality." 
These  are  purely  psychological  definitions  and  are  based 
on  sound  experimental  evidence.  Clinically  this  dissocia- 

1  Morton  Prince,  "Hysteria  from  the  Point  of  View  of  Dissociated 
Personality,"  Journal  Abnormal  Psychology,  vol.  i,  No.  4,  October, 
1906.  a  Pierre  Janet,  The  Major  Symptoms  of  Hysteria,  1907. 


2o8  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

tion  is  manifested  in  many  different  ways.  There  may 
be  a  paralysis  of  one  or  more  limbs,  losses  of  sensation  in 
various  parts  of  the  body  may  arise  (hysterical  anaesthesia), 
the  memory  for  certain  periods  may  disappear  (amnesia), 
complex  acts  of  somnambulism  may  take  place,  the  voice 
may  become  suddenly  lost  (aphonia),  there  may  be  con- 
vulsions, phantom  tumors  may  suddenly  appear,  and 
finally  there  may  be  disturbances  of  vision,  from  an  ex- 
treme narrowing  of  the  visual  field  to  complete  blindness. 
But  these  symptoms  when  carefully  studied  are  found  to 
have  their  peculiarities,  and  the  chief  of  these  is  their 
inconsistency.  It  is  this  inconsistency  which  gives  the 
appearance  of  simulation  to  many  of  the  acts  and  symp- 
toms of  the  hysterical.  The  paralysis  and  anaesthesia 
may  show  anatomical  impossibilities,  the  right  arm  or 
the  left  leg  or  vice  versa  may  be  paralyzed;  the  patient 
may  be  able  to  move  the  legs  in  bed  without  a  trace  of 
muscular  weakness  and  yet  be  totally  unable  to  walk; 
the  anaesthesia  does  not  follow  the  distribution  of  any 
nerve;  the  patient  may  be  unable  to  feel  a  painful  sensa- 
tion over  an  area  resembling  a  glove  or  stocking,  or  it 
may  be  sharply  limited  to  one  side  of  the  body,  even  the 
tongue  being  involved.  The  peculiarities  that  hold  for 
one  group  of  symptoms  hold  for  all  the  others,  so  there 
is  no  need  to  enumerate  them  all.  The  hysteric  who  has 
lost  the  voice  will  scream  on  a  sudden  emotion;  if  tests 
show  almost  complete  blindness,  yet  obstacles  are  intel- 
ligently avoided.  What  is  the  meaning  of  all  these  symp- 
toms? An  account  of  a  few  experiments  is  necessary  to 
illustrate  the  psychology  of  hysteria  more  clearly.  Take 
an  hysteric  who  has  lost  all  sensation  in  the  right  hand. 


DISEASES  OF  THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  209 

Blindfold  the  patient,  prick  or  pinch  the  hand,  the  patient 
asserts  that  he  feels  absolutely  nothing.  Repeat  the 
experiment  and  pinch  or  prick  the  hand  a  definite  number 
of  times,  then  ask  the  patient  to  tell  you  the  first  number 
that  comes  into  his  mind,  and  it  will  be  found  that  this 
number  will  correspond  to  the  times  the  hand  has  been 
pinched  or  pricked.  Repeat  the  experiment  any  number 
of  times  and  under  all  variations  and  the  result  will  be 
the  same.  What  does  this  mean?  It  means  that  the 
patient  subconsciously  perceived  what  was  done  to  him 
and  how  many  times.  In  other  words,  there  is  not  a  real 
anaesthesia,  such  as  would  follow  if  a  nerve  were  cut  or 
diseased,  but  a  subconscious  anaesthesia,  a  psychic  one. 
The  feeling  of  the  limb  is  only  split  off,  dissociated,  but 
is  clearly  perceived  by  the  subconscious  self.  It  is  this 
inability  to  call  up  the  idea  of  a  motion  of  a  limb  or  its 
feeling,  or  the  failure  of  the  faculty  of  recollection,  that 
causes  the  paralyses,  the  anaesthesias,  the  amnesias. 
What  is  true  of  one  symptom  or  group  of  symptoms  in  , 
hysteria  is  true  of  all.  They  are  merely  dissociations. 
One  peculiarity  of  the  hysterical  symptoms  is  their  sudden 
appearance  and  disappearance.  Hysterical  phantom 
tumors  resemble  a  real  tumor,  but  get  well  without  surgical 
operation.  The  sudden  onset  of  blindness,  and  its  just 
as  sudden  recovery  after  months  or  years,  is  usually 
hysterical.  The  paralyses  of  years'  duration  that  recover 
under  the  stress  of  a  strong  emotion,  or  even  in  a  single 
night,  are  always  hysterical. 

These  motor  and  sensory  dissociations  are  the  result 
of  a  morbid  auto-suggestion.  The  hysteric  is  above  all 
highly  suggestible.  That  is  why  he  can  be  so  easily 


2io  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

hypnotized  and  why  the  symptoms  will  disappear  in  hypno- 
sis. Sometimes  painful  ideas  of  a  disagreeable  nature  are 
suppressed  during  the  day,  to  appear  again  at  night  in 
sleep-walking  or  somnambulism,  as  in  the  case  of  Lady 
Macbeth.  In  one  of  Janet's  cases  the  young  woman 
obstinately  refused  to  eat,  because  she  immediately 
vomited  any  food  or  drink.  Furthermore,  she  was  in- 
sensible all  over  the  body.  When  this  young  woman 
was  hypnotized,  in  the  hypnotic  state  the  insensibility 
of  the  body  disappeared,  the  vomiting  ceased  and  she 
accepted  food  and  drink.  The  only  way  in  which  this 
patient  could  be  nourished  was  by  placing  her  in  the 
hypnotic  state,  otherwise  death  would  have  resulted  by 
starvation.  One  of  our  cases  was  an  hysterical  boy,  who 
suffered  from  convulsions  and  one-half  of  his  body  was 
anaesthetic,  even  the  tongue  and  mucous  membrane  of 
the  mouth  being  involved.  Furthermore,  he  had  attacks 
of  hysterical  paralyses  and  contractures  involving  the  left 
arm  and  leg.  All  these  paralyses,  contractures,  and  in- 
sensibility of  the  body  could  be  made  to  appear  or  dis- 
appear at  will,  by  mere  waking  suggestion.  Ultimately, 
as  a  result  of  suggestion,  all  the  hysterical  symptoms, 
even  the  convulsions,  disappeared. 

An  example  of  crystal  gazing  has  already  been  given. 
In  automatic  writing  the  hand  unconsciously  produces 
weird  drawings,  words,  sentences,  anecdotes,  often  scraps 
of  knowledge  written  in  some  outlandish  tongue.  There 
is  nothing  supernormal  in  these  productions,  the  hand 
merely  writes  previous  knowledge  and  experiences, 
which  in  some  way  have  become  dissociated.  The  con- 
tent of  the  writing  may  represent  a  mechanical  repetition 


DISEASES  OF  THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  211 

of  the  dissociated  knowledge,  or  there  may  be  consider- 
able elaboration  or  even  fabrication.  In  these  subcon- 
scious ideas  we  see  the  resurrection  of  some  forgotten 
knowledge.  In  most  cases  the  subject  is  hi  a  state  of 
deep  abstraction  during  the  process,  the  movement  of 
the  hand  is  unperceived,  and  there  is  no  memory  of  what 
has  been  written.  In  reviewing  a  series  of  automatic 
writings  by  Mrs.  A.  W.  Verrall  *  it  was  stated  that  there 
was  nothing  to  show  that  the  content  of  the  writings  either 
did  not  represent  the  previous  knowledge  and  experiences 
of  the  subject  or  was  not  a  pure  fabrication.  The  source 
of  this  knowledge,  however,  in  most  instances,  had  been 
long  forgotten,  in  reality  had  become  subconscious,  but 
later  was  reproduced  in  a  condition  of  abstraction. 

The  best  example  in  which  the  automatic  writing  was 
a  purely  subconscious  fabrication  is  found  in  Flournoy's 
study  of  Mile.  Helene  Smith.2  In  the  Martian  Cycle  of 
Mile.  Smith  the  subject  made  drawings  of  an  alleged 
Martian  landscape,  a  Martian  alphabet  was  produced, 
and  finally  a  large  number  of  rather  fragmentary  Martian 
texts.  This  "subliminal  astronomy"  Flournoy  traces 
back  to  his  subject's  interest  some  years  previously  in  the 
Martian  canals,  although  he  admits  that  the  original 
elements  have  been  recombined  and  molded  in  a  very 
original  fashion.  In  Hyslop's  case  of  Mrs.  Smead,3 

1  On  a  Series  of  Automatic  Writings,  by  Mrs.  A.  W.  Verrall.  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,  part  liii,  vol.  xx, 
October,  1906,  pp.  432  +  x.  (See  review  in  Journal  Abnormal  Psychology, 
December,  1906,  pp.  226-229). 

*  See  Flournoy's  interesting  book,  From  India  to  the  Planet  Mars,  1901. 

8  James  H.  Hyslop,  "Apparent  Subconscious  Fabrication,"  Journal 
Abnormal  Psychology,  vol  i,  No.  5,  December,  1906. 


212  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

there  were  also  alleged  communications  of  life  on  the 
planet  Mars,  and  later  a  hieroglyphic  language  was 
developed. 

The  amnesias  or  systematized  losses  of  memory  are  of 
great  theoretical  and  practical  importance.  Sometimes 
this  loss  is  for  a  few  days  only;  sometimes  it  compresses  an 
entire  period  of  life.  But  in  the  functional  amnesias,  as 
distinct  from  those  dependent  on  organic  brain  disease, 
the  memory  is  really  not  lost,  it  is  dissociated  merely;  it 
exists  in  its  entirety  in  the  subconscious.  By  proper 
.psychological  devices,  the  subconscious  memories  can  be 
synthetized  with  the  normal  consciousness  and  thus  the 
memories  for  the  lost  period  can  be  permanently  restored. 
These  losses  of  memory  occur  frequently  in  hysteria  and 
in  alcoholism,  but  are  occasionally  found  in  those  who 
are  neither  hysteric  nor  alcoholic.  Accounts  are  occa- 
sionally published  of  a  person  suddenly  disappearing, 
foul  play  is  suspected,  and  for  weeks  or  months  the  person 
will  be  unheard  of.  Suddenly,  in  some  strange,  remote 
place,  this  person  will  suddenly  come  to  himself,  will 
wonder  how  he  reached  there  and  will  find  that  he  has 
been  passing  under  another  name.  The  entire  past  for 
several  months  will  be  a  blank.  Now  it  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  sometimes,  for  social  and  therapeutic  reasons, 
that  this  blank  period  should  be  restored.  It  is  not  a 
real  blank,  however,  for  the  memories  of  the  lost  period 
are  merely  dissociated,  subconscious.  Now  these  lost 
memories  can  be  fully  and  permanently  restored,  and, 
in  fact,  this  has  been  successfully  accomplished.  In  one 
case,  following  a  blow  on  the  head,  a  man  of  wide  learning 
became  like  a  child  in  intellect;  another  wandered  to  a 


DISEASES  OF  THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  213 

distant  city  without  any  recollection  of  the  act;  in  still 
another,  an  educated  woman,  after  several  exciting 
episodes,  went  into  a  deep  stupor,  and  on  awakening  it 
was  found  that  all  memory  of  her  previous  life  had  been 
obliterated.1 

Modern  researches  have  established  that  neurasthenia 
and  psychasthenia  are  merely  diseases  of  the  subconscious. 
All  the  symptoms  of  neurasthenia  can  be  referred  to  a 
dissociation,  —  the  fatigue,  headaches,  dizziness,  heart 
and  gastric  symptoms,  the  mental  state  and  the  fleeting 
pains.  This  dissociation  probably  originates  hi  an  ex- 
haustion of  the  brain.  Occasionally  the  neurasthenic 
state  is  merely  a  symptom  of  hysteria. 

Sometimes,  however,  after  the  strong  emotional  shock 
of  a  railway  accident,  with  its  harassing  experiences,  there 
develops  a  peculiar  group  of  symptoms,  partly  hysterical, 
partly  neurasthenic  in  nature,  known  as  the  traumatic 
neuroses.  The  injury  may  be  slight  or  severe,  in  fact  the 
development  of  the  symptoms,  or  their  intensity,  seems  to 
bear  no  relation  to  the  severity  of  the  injury.  The  ulti- 
mate cause,  therefore,  of  these  traumatic  neuroses  seems 
to  be  the  very  sudden  emotional  disturbance.  Much  of 
the  litigation  hi  our  courts  is  based  on  this  particular 
form  of  nervous  disease. 

Psychasthenia  can  also  be  interpreted  psychologically. 
It  is  a  disease  of  the  mental  level,  and  when  the  mental 

1  For  details  see  William  James'  Psychology,  vol.  i,  pp.  391-393 
(case  of  Rev.  Ansel  Bourne).  Boris  Sidis,  Multiple  Personality,  1905. 
Isador  H.  Coriat,  "The  Experimental  Synthesis  of  the  Dissociated 
Memories  in  Alcoholic  Amnesia,"  Journal  Abnormal  Psychology,  vol.  i, 
No.  3,  August,  1906.  Isador  H.  Coriat, "The  Lowell  Case  of  Amnesia," 
Journal  Abnormal  Psychology,  vol.  ii,  No.  3,  August,  September,  1907. 


214  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

level  sinks  below  a  certain  point  we  have  the  phenomena 
of  psychasthenia.  It  is  to  the  great  credit  of  Janet,  that 
he  succeeded  in  unifying  many  diverse  symptoms  which  had 
previously  been  described  separately,  and  established  that 
psychasthenia  is  really  the  mental  state  accompanying  ob- 
sessions and  fixed  ideas.  It  has  many  features  common  to 
epilepsy,  hysteria,  and  neurasthenia.  There  are  depres- 
sions, various  obsessions,  often  a  feeling  of  unreality  and 
peculiar  crises  and  convulsive  attacks.  The  obsessions  or 
fixed  ideas  may  be  those  of  crime,  disgrace  of  self  or  body; 
frequently  absurd  ideas  of  violence  arise.  The  patient 
may  become  agitated,  perplexed,  over-scrupulous,  ask 
many  peculiar  questions,  develop  all  sorts  of  fears,  such 
as  a  fear  of  open  places  (agoraphobia),  a  fear  of  contami- 
nation by  dirt  (mysophobia),  etc.  In  addition  there  are 
frequently  attacks  of  intense  anxiety  and  the  mental  con- 
dition shows  a  marked  indecision. 

There  is  another  point.  Attacks  closely  resembling 
epilepsy  are  sometimes  observed,  which  are  not  real 
epilepsy  at  all,  but  only  outwardly  resembling  it.  Neither 
have  they  any  relation  to  hysteria  or  psychasthenia.  On 
close  study  it  will  be  found  that  these  attacks  have  a  sub- 
conscious origin.  They  do  not  yield  to  the  usual  treat- 
ment for  epilepsy,  but  some  form  of  psychotherapy  is  very 
beneficial  and  in  most  cases  curative. 

We  have  left  for  the  end  the  subject  of  multiple  person- 
ality. The  subject  is  so  large  and  complex,  however, 
that  only  the  barest  outlines  can  be  indicated.  All  cases 
of  multiple  personality  are  accompanied  by  amnesia  or 
loss  of  memory,  and  much  that  was  stated  about  the 
latter  will  be  found  to  be  true  of  the  former.  In  fact, 


DISEASES  OF  THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  215 

there  may  be  a  transition  from  one  to  the  other.  Those 
who  are  interested  in  the  subject  will  do  well  to  read  Dr. 
Prince's  narrative  of  Miss  Beauchamp  in  his  Dissociation 
of  a  Personality.1  The  final  synthesis  of  Miss  Beau- 
champ's  several  personalities  into  one  healthy  self  fur- 
nishes a  splendid  example  of  the  efficiency  of  purely 
psychological  methods  in  bringing  about  a  cure. 
These  methods  were  based  upon  the  modern  theories  of 
the  subconscious.  In  this  patient,  an  intelligent  young 
woman  of  twenty-three,  there  was  presented  at  first 
nothing  but  the  symptoms  of  ordinary  neurasthenia. 
One  by  one,  however,  four  distinct  personalities  appeared, 
and  in  their  unfolding  a  complex  drama  was  enacted. 
The  various  personalities  are  analyzed  with  great  skill. 
One  of  these,  designated  by  the  name  of  "  Sally,"  played 
all  sorts  of  pranks  and  tricks,  of  which  the  other  per- 
sonalities were  ignorant.  Examples  have  already  been 
given  in  the  paragraphs  on  crystal  gazing.  The  origin 
of  the  dissociation  was  due  to  a  strong  emotional  shock. 
Each  personality  was  an  organized,  subconscious  self,  and 
each  acted  according  to  its  own  memories,  moods,  and  in- 
telligence. Each  shifted  and  replaced  the  other  from 
time  to  time,  although  "Sally"  was  the  most  successful 
in  this  shifting  and  seemed  to  take  an  impish  delight  in 
remaining  "on  top  of  the  heap."  The  case  is  a  perfect 
mine  of  abnormal  psychological  phenomena,  ecstasy 
and  sudden  religious  conversion,  alterations  of  charac- 
ter, losses  of  memory,  hysterical  and  neurasthenic  symp- 
toms, automatic  writing  and  crystal  vision;  in  fact, 
nearly  all  the  manifestations  of  a  subconscious  mental 

1  Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  1906. 


216  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

life.  In  the  end,  the  original  Miss  Beauchamp  was  re- 
constructed. 

There  is  one  more  curious  fact  of  the  subconscious  that 
merits  notice.  In  amnesia,  the  lost  memories  reappear 
in  sleep,  but  are  looked  upon  by  the  patient  as  pure 
imaginative  creations,  as  dreams.  In  one  of  Janet's 
cases,  the  patient  talked  in  her  sleep  and  pronounced 
names  of  which  she  knew  nothing  in  her  waking  state; 
the  dreams  of  two  of  the  personalities  of  Miss  Beauchamp 
were  alike  and  each  remembered  them  as  her  own ;  in  the 
Lowell  case  of  amnesia  the  patient's  dreams  were  those 
of  experiences  that  occurred  in  her  former  life,  but  of 
which  she  had  no  memory  on  awakening  except  as  a 
dream. 

Now  what  causes  these  dissociations?  Exhaustion 
may  fail  to  synthetize  the  consciousness;  certain  emotional 
shocks  may  split  the  personality;  alcohol  may  cause  ex- 
tensive losses  of  memory;  fixed  ideas  may  exist  sub- 
consciously and  act  as  a  constant  psychic  irritation  by 
turning  the  mind  topsy-turvy.  Even  convulsions  resem- 
bling real  epilepsy  may  occur.  When  these  functional 
conditions  once  occur,  they  can  recur  a  second  time  more 
easily.  The  ideas  break  through  on  slight  provocation 
and  then  we  have  the  hysterical  attack  or  the  loss  of 
memory  or  the  change  of  personality. 

What  can  science  do  for  these  diseases  of  the  subcon- 
scious? Everything,  but  by  psychological  methods  ex- 
clusively, not  by  drugs.  If  certain  diseases  are  caused 
by  a  dissociation  of  consciousness,  it  naturally  follows 
that  a  state  of  healthy-mindedness  can  only  be  secured 
by  a  reassociation,  a  synthesis  of  this  split  consciousness. 


DISEASES  OF  THE  SUBCONSCIOUS  217 

Figuratively,  we  must  "tap  the  subconscious"  and 
synthetize  the  dissociated  portion  with  the  main  stream. 
This  can  be  accomplished  by  many  psychological  de- 
vices: psychic  re-education;  utilization  of  reserve  energy; 
suggestions  given  in  hypnosis  or  in  states  of  deep  abstrac- 
tion, etc.  These  must  be  frequently  repeated,  for  it  is  a 
well-known  law  that  a  state  of  dissociation  once  estab- 
lished can  more  easily  take  place  again.  By  these  methods 
there  follows  a  re-association,  a  synthesis  of  the  disso- 
ciated state.  The  attention  becomes  strengthened,,  the 
subconscious  field  again  enters  consciousness  and  is 
perceived,  whereas  before  it  lay  outside  of  consciousness 
and  consequently  was  not  perceived.  Thus  memories 
of  lost  periods  may  be  restored,  multiple  personalities 
may  be  blended  into  one  healthy  personality,  hysterical 
symptoms  may  be  made  to  disappear  and  fixed  ideas  may 
be  permanently  destroyed.  Certain  hidden  emotional 
states  may  be  brought  to  light  and  curious  disease  mani- 
festations of  otherwise  obscure  origin,  such  as  paralyses 
and  convulsions,  may  be  permanently  benefited.1 

1  For  pertinent  examples,  see  the  following  papers:  Boris  Sidis  and 
Morton  Prince,  "A  contribution  to  the  Pathology  of  Hysteria  based 
upon  an  Experimental  Study  of  a  Case  of  Hemlanaesthesia  with  Clonic 
Convulsive  Attacks  Simulating  Jacksonian  Epilepsy,"  Boston  Medical 
and  Surgical  Journal,  June  23,  1904.  Isador  H.  Coriat,  "Nocturnal 
Paralysis,"  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  July  n,  1907. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  NATURE  OF  HYPNOTISM 

THE  words  hypnotism  and  hypnosis  were  first  suggested 
by  Braid  of  Manchester  in  1843,  although  many  of  the 
phenomena  had  been  recognized  from  remote  antiquity. 
The  words  are  derived  from  a  Greek  root  signifying 
sleep,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  there  is  a  distinct  difference 
between  hypnotic  and  natural  sleep,  and  furthermore 
that  some  hypnotic  states  do  not  resemble  sleep  at  all, 
being  rather  conditions  of  intense  abstraction  or  absent- 
mindedness.  Hypnosis,  however,  designates  a  group  of 
very  complex  phenomena,  whose  analysis  is  not  fully 
completed,  but  whose  importance  for  therapeutic  and 
psychological  purposes  is  daily  becoming  more  manifest. 
Hypnosis  is  as  old  as  the  human  race,  but  it  is  only  within 
the  last  twenty-five  years  that  it  has  been  scientifically 
investigated  and  its  nature  understood.  Animals,  too,  may 
be  hypnotized  and  hi  them  may  be  observed  some  of  the 
phenomena  that  occur  in  human  beings.  Max  Verworn, 
has  given  us  a  very  pertinent  account  of  hypnosis  in 
animals  and  has  illustrated  it  by  some  interesting  photo- 
graphs.1 "It  may  suffice  to  recall  a  few  well-known 
phenomena.  The  ancient  experiments  of  the  Egyptian 

1  General  Physiology,  An  Outline  of  the  Science  of  Life,  pp.  494-496. 
See  figures  151  (guinea  pig)  and  245  (asp  and  fowl),  for  illustrations  of 
hypnosis  in  animals. 

218 


THE  NATURE  OF  HYPNOTISM  219 

snake  charmers,  which  Moses  and  Aaron  performed  before 
the  Egyptian  Pharaoh  more  than  three  thousand  years  ago, 
belong  to  this  category  (i.e. ,  hypnosis  in  animals).  By  slight 
pressure  in  the  neck  region,  it  is  possible  to  make  a  wildly 
excited,  hissing,  erect  asp  (hooded  snake)  suddenly  motion- 
less, so  that  the  dangerous  creature  can  be  put  into  any 
desired  position  without  fear  of  its  fatal  bite.  The  well- 
known  experiment  of  Father  Kircher  depends  upon  the 
same  causes.  If  any  excited  fowl  be  seized  suddenly 
with  a  firm  grip  and  laid  carefully  upon  its  back,  after  a 
few  brief  attempts  to  escape  it  lies  motionless.  Guinea 
pigs,  rabbits,  frogs,  lizards,  crabs,  and  numerous  other 
animals  behave  similarly."  According  to  Verworn,  the 
hypnosis  of  human  beings  depends  upon  the  same  physio- 
logical mechanism,  that  is,  an  inhibition  of  the  will. 

Like  all  new  movements  in  medicine,  hypnosis  was 
compelled  to  pass  through  an  era  of  skepticism  before  it 
became  firmly  rooted  as  one  of  the  most  important 
methods  of  treatment  and  investigation  possessed  by 
medical  science.  In  fact  hypnosis,  or  some  other  form 
of  psychotherapy,  is  the  only  rational  treatment  of  the 
functional  as  distinguished  from  the  organic  nervous 
diseases.  Hypnosis  is  quite  popularly  known,  but  its 
unfortunate  use  by  traveling  charlatans  and  mountebanks 
for  public  exhibition  purposes  has  made  it  the  subject 
of  wide-spread  misconception,  fear,  and  even  ridicule. 
Even  from  the  trained  physician,  the  word  hypnotism 
proposed  as  a  therapeutic  agent  for  some  functional  dis- 
order of  the  nervous  system  causes  the  patient  almost 
instinctively  to  shrink  when  the  term  is  mentioned,  to 
ask  what  it  means,  if  it  will  make  them  unconscious, 


220  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

destroy  their  will  power  and  even  their  personality. 
When  an  explanation  is  given  and  the  treatment  begun, 
there  still  remains  at  first  the  conscious  or  unconscious 
resistance.  If  this  short  chapter  helps  to  dispel  the 
popular  illusion  and  ignorance  and  places  hypnotism  on 
the  sound  scientific  basis  to  which  it  rightfully  belongs, 
its  purpose  will  not  have  been  in  vain.  The  beginning 
of  the  scientific  investigation  of  hypnotism  occupied  a 
position  analogous  to  the  kite  in  the  hands  of  Franklin  or 
the  dead  frog  in  Galvani's  laboratory.  But  as  from  these 
arose  modern  electro  physics  and  electro  chemistry,  so 
hypnotism  evolved  until  it  developed  into  one  of  the  im- 
portant features  of  modern  abnormal  psychology. 

But  we  know  to-day  that  we  are  dealing  with  one  of 
the  most  valuable  and  penetrating  therapeutic  and  ex- 
perimental agents.  Stripped  of  all  its  mystery,  hypnotism 
stands  out  as  one  of  the  triumphs  of  modern  science, 
whose  laws  are  fairly  well  known  and  whose  mechanism 
is  far  removed  from  the  occult.  From  the  standpoint  of 
therapeutics,  many  of  the  functional  disorders  of  the 
nervous  system,  particularly  that  protean  disease  called 
hysteria,  have  been  greatly  ameliorated  and  in  many 
cases  absolutely  cured  by  hypnotic  suggestion.  On  the 
other  hand,  experimental  hypnosis  has  enabled  us  to 
penetrate  deeply  into  the  workings  of  consciousness, 
especially  the  baffling  states  of  double  personality  and 
subconscious  phenomena. 

The  historical  development  of  hypnosis  forms  one  of 
the  most  interesting  chapters  in  modern  medicine  and  it 
is  to  this  history  that  we  will  briefly  direct  our  attention. 
Here  we  have  a  very  pertinent  example  of  the  evolution 


THE  NATURE  OF  HYPNOTISM  221 

from  mysticism  in  medicine  to  sound  scientific  theory. 
The  French  have  been  and  are  to  this  day  among  the 
foremost  students  of  hypnotism,  for  it  was  in  France  that 
the  beginnings  of  scientific  hypnotism  arose.  The  his- 
tory of  hypnotism  may  be  conveniently  divided  into  three 
periods:  that  of  Mesmerism  from  1780  to  1788;  that  of 
Magnetism  from  1820  to  1850,  and  finally  the  period  of 
the  scientific  study  of  hypnotism  beginning  in  1875  and 
continuing  up  to  the  present  time.  In  1780  Friedrich 
Anton  Mesmer,  a  physician  and  a  student  of  the  occult, 
first  made  his  appearance.  He  claimed  miraculous  powers 
and  clothed  his  procedures  with  picturesque  and  mystic 
effects.  Indeed,  to  the  public,  many  of  his  cures  appeared 
miraculous,  on  account  of  their  ignorance  of  what  con- 
stituted suggestion.  Mesmer  believed  in  an  external, 
invisible  fluid,  which  was  able  to  penetrate  all  portions 
of  the  body,  especially  the  central  nervous  system.  He 
thought  this  fluid  could  influence  and  modify  in  various 
ways  all  psychical  and  physiological  reactions.  So  great 
was  public  interest  in  these  phenomena,  that  the  French 
Government  appointed  a  commission  of  savants,  one  of 
whom  was  Benjamin  Franklin,  to  investigate  the  claims 
of  Mesmer.  In  their  report  they  verified  the  results,  but 
attributed  them  to  purely  physiological  causes.  Soon 
after,  owing  to  some  unfortunate  failures  with  prominent 
patients,  Mesmer's  influence  rapidly  declined.  Except 
for  some  sporadic  investigators,  the  subject  of  hypnotism 
remained  unnoticed  and  almost  forgotten  until  the  so- 
called  "magnetism"  began  to  attract  attention  in  1820. 
It  would  exceed  the  scope  and  purpose  of  this  chapter  to 
trace  its  development  in  subsequent  years.  It  must 


222  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

suffice  to  state  that  gradually  the  old  "magnetism"  gave 
way  to  the  more  modern  and,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  the 
scientific  theory  of  hypnosis.  This  may  be  summed  up  in 
a  few  words,  namely,  that  all  the  phenomena  of  the  hyp- 
notic sleep  are  purely  the  results  of  suggestion.  At  first 
it  was  believed  that  hypnosis  was  due  to  somatic  causes, 
the  fatigue  of  fixation  and  attention  (Braid),  or  to  the 
various  physical,  peripheral  stimuli,  such  as  fixation, 
stroking  the  forehead,  manipulation  of  the  eyelids 
(Charcot  and  his  school).  It  was  finally  due  to  Lie"beault, 
Bernheim,  and  the  so-called  Nancy  school,  that  the  funda- 
mental importance  played  by  suggestion  was  first  realized. 

Since  then  hypnotism  has  attracted  the  serious  atten- 
tion of  all  scientific  physicians.  Among  the  French  in- 
vestigators may  be  mentioned  Gilles  de  la  Tourette, 
Charcot,  Lie"beault,  Bernheim,  Janet;  in  England,  Braid 
and  Bramwell;  in  Switzerland,  Forel;  in  Germany  and 
Austria,  Moll  and  Krafft-Ebing;  in  Sweden,  Wetter- 
strand,  and  finally,  in  America,  William  James,  Morton 
Prince,  and  Boris  Sidis. 

Hypnosis,  therefore,  stripping  it  of  all  mysticism, 
may  be  defined  as  an  intense  form  of  artificial  abstrac- 
tion (absent-mindedness)  brought  on  by  suggestion.  This 
artificial  abstraction  either  narrows  or  dissociates  the 
consciousness,  and  to  this  splitting  of  consciousness  many 
of  the  phenomena  and  therapeutic  effects  of  hypnotism 
are  due.  Experimentally,  it  constitutes  one  of  the 
methods  for  "tapping"  the  subconscious,  analogous 
to  the  hypnoidal  state,  or  to  the  state  of  experimental 
abstraction  or  distraction.  The  three  marked  character- 
istics of  the  hypnotic  sleep  are  amnesia  (complete  loss 


THE  NATURE  OF  HYPNOTISM  223 

of  memory),  suggestibility,  and  subconscious  phenomena. 
Whether  one  or  all  of  these  appear,  depends  partly 
on  the  susceptibility  of  the  patient  and  partly  on  the 
depth  of  the  hypnosis  induced.  The  amnesia,  of  course, 
comprises  only  the  period  occupied  by  the  hypnotic 
sleep.  Instead  of  a  complete  amnesia  there  may  be 
only  a  slight  haziness  of  memory  or  even  a  perfectly 
clear  recollection  of  the  hypnotic  state.  These,  how- 
ever, do  not  influence  the  condition  of  heightened 
suggestibility  that  accompanies  all  depths  of  hypnosis. 
Of  course,  if  the  suggestions  are  not  remembered  they 
cannot  be  antagonized  or  modified;  in  other  words,  when 
there  is  complete  amnesia  the  suggestions  are  dissociated 
or  become  subconscious.  The  suggestibility  is  likewise 
subject  to  variations,  dependent  on  the  temperament  of 
the  patient  and  the  depth  of  the  hypnosis  induced.  There 
may  be  an  intense  reaction  to  hypnotic  or  post-hypnotic 
influences  with  a  clock-like  precision,  or  many  seances 
may  be  necessary  to  secure  the  required  result.  The 
subconscious  phenomena  are  variable  and  form  a  gradu- 
ally increasing  complexity  from  mere  automatisms  to 
complete  dissociation  of  the  personality  or  memory, 
forming  what  is  known  as  double  or  multiple  personality. 
In  a  popular  book  like  this,  it  has  been  thought  desirable 
to  omit  technical  terms  as  much  as  possible,  but  a  few 
of  these  are  so  expressive  that  some  definitions  become 
necessary,  in  order  to  avoid  repetitions  in  the  future.  A 
short  explanation  of  what  constitutes  hypnosis  has  already 
been  given.  This  will  be  elaborated  upon  later,  when  we 
shall  also  briefly  discuss  the  difference  between  hypnotic 
and  natural  sleep.  The  word  "hypnotist"  does  not  re- 


224  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

quire  a  definition.  By  some  writers  this  is  considered 
synonymous  with  dictator.  By  suggestion  we  mean  the 
dictation  of  certain  commands  or  the  giving  of  certain 
orders  and  their  acceptance  to  a  person  either  in  a  state 
of  light  hypnosis  or  in  a  deep  hypnotic  sleep.  According 
to  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  commands  given  in  hyp- 
nosis are  to  be  carried  out  while  in  that  state,  or,  as  is 
more  frequently  the  plan,  they  are  given  in  such  a  manner 
that  they  will  react  after  the  person  has  been  awakened 
from  the  hypnotic  sleep.  These  latter  are  known  as  post- 
hypnotic  suggestions  and  in  this  peculiarity  lies  the  great 
value  of  hypnotism.  Suggestions  are  usually  given  ver- 
bally by  spoken  words  or  by  placing  the  hypnotized  person 
in  a  certain  position,  thus  calling  forth  a  more  complex 
suggestion  through  the  association  of  ideas.  Auto-hyp- 
nosis or  auto-suggestion  is  the  mental  state  produced  by 
the  person's  mind  reacting  on  itself,  either  consciously, 
unconsciously,  or  subconsciously.  Of  course,  from  the 
very  nature  of  the  process,  it  possesses  far  less  thera- 
peutic value  than  suggestions  given  in  hypnosis  by  a 
second  party. 

Thus  we  have  seen  that  the  fundamental  characteristic 
of  the  hypnotic  state  is  the  altered  condition  of  conscious- 
ness, whereby  the  normal  suggestibility  is  heightened  or 
greatly  intensified.  It  can  be  produced  by  mere  verbal 
suggestion,  by  various  mechanical  devices,  such  as  staring 
at  a  bright  object  or  listening  to  a  monotonous  sound 
stimulus,  thus  fatiguing  the  sense  organs  and  brain  by  a 
narrowing  of  consciousness  upon  one  point.  In  all  hyp- 
notized persons  there  is  a  rapport  or  connection  between 
the  hypnotizer  and  the  person  hypnotized.  This  is  of 


THE  NATURE  OF  HYPNOTISM  225 

great  importance,  as  it  enables  suggestions  to  be  mentally 
assimilated  and  to  be  carried  out  as  post-hypnotic  phe- 
nomena. It  is  this  connection  that  constitutes  the  great 
difference  between  hypnotic  and  normal  sleep.  Auto- 
hypnosis  or  auto-suggestion,  the  reaction  of  the  mind 
upon  itself,  is  interesting  from  the  historic  standpoint,  as 
this  constitutes  the  ecstatic  state  of  the  Hindu  Mystics. 
The  intense  abstraction  in  these  cases  is  produced  by 
the  firm  fixation  of  the  eyes  upon  the  umbilicus  and 
constantly  repeating  the  sacred  syllable  Om.  From  the 
scientific  standpoint,  however,  the  only  rational  method 
of  inducing  hypnosis  is  through  suggestion,  by  means 
of  the  dictation  of  others,  although  auto-suggestion  is  of 
limited  value  in  the  milder  types  of  functional  dis- 
orders. 

According  to  the  best  authenticated  statistics  and  also 
as  the  result  of  personal  experience,  one  can  safely  assume 
that  from  80  per  cent  to  96  per  cent  of  all  persons  are 
hypnotizable.  These  figures  are  not  exaggerated,  if  we 
consider  how  many  of  the  human  race  are  suggestible 
in  the  waking  condition.  Some  of  the  French  investi- 
gators claim  triat  only  cases  of  hysteria  can  be  success- 
fully hypnotized,  and  this  has  led  one  writer  to  state  that 
the  hysterics  are  the  frogs  of  experimental  psychology. 
However,  personal  experience  and  the  experience  of  others 
leads  us  to  decidedly  dissent  from  this  view.  We  have 
hypnotized  many  persons  who  were  certainly  not  suffer- 
ing from  hysteria.  Every  mentally  healthy  person  is 
hypnotizable,  especially  the  strong-willed,  contrary  to 
the  popular  belief.  Children,  on  account  of  their  cre- 
dulity, are  very  suggestible  and,  therefore,  very  easily 


226  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

hypnotized.  Idiots  and  the  insane  are  very  difficult,  if 
not  impossible,  to  hypnotize.  Waking  suggestion  differs 
in  many  respects  from  hypnotic  suggestion.  In  the 
hypnotized  subject  there  is  an  annihilation  or  a  lowering 
of  the  will  power  and  of  the  conscious  resistance,  and 
therefore  the  reaction  to  the  commands  can  be  dissociated 
or  split  off  from  the  command  itself.  In  the  waking  sub- 
ject, however,  this  waking  resistance  consciously  or  un- 
consciously takes  place.  Suggestions  can  act  in  any 
depth  of  hypnosis,  with  this  difference,  however,  that  in 
the  lighter  grades  a  more  frequent  hypnotization  becomes 
necessary.  Therefore,  in  hypnosis  there  is  a  state  of 
over-credulity  produced  by  the  heightened  suggestibility, 
whereas  in  the  waking  state  this  over-credulousness,  at 
least  in  adult  individuals,  may  be  antagonized  or  neu- 
tralized by  counter  suggestions.  In  children,  however, 
mere  waking  suggestion  is  often  sufficient  for  therapeutic 
purposes.  Post-hypnotic  suggestions  act  powerfully  be- 
cause of  this  increased  suggestibility  in  the  hypnotic  state. 
For  this  reason,  these  suggestions,  if  remembered,  are 
usually  not  antagonized.  If  not  remembered,  or  in  other 
words,  if  there  is  an  amnesia,  they  are  completely  dis- 
sociated from  the  waking  consciousness  and  therefore 
antagonism  or  counter-suggestions  are  impossible.  There- 
fore, as  will  be  easily  gathered  from  the  above,  when  the 
hypnosis  is  deep  and  an  amnesia  supervenes,  in  other 
words,  where  there  arises  a  state  of  hypnotic  somnam- 
bulism, suggestions  are  more  penetrating  and  effective. 
When  the  hypnosis  is  light  and  there  is  no  amnesia,  the 
same  result  can  only  be  secured  by  more  frequent  stances. 
Before  we  proceed  further  to  discuss  the  therapeutic 


THE  NATURE  OF  HYPNOTISM  227 

value  of  hypnotism,  it  is  necessary  to  inquire  into  two 
important  questions:  first,  the  relation  between  ordinary 
sleep  and  hypnotic  sleep;  and  second,  the  various  physical 
and  mental  phenomena  of  the  hypnotic  state. 

Sleep  has  been  denned  as  the  resting  time  of  con- 
sciousness, but  it  is  rather  a  partially  conscious  mental 
state  and  not  a  complete  annihilation.  A  sound  sleep 
is  dreamless  just  like  a  complete  anaesthesia,  and  dreams 
only  appear  in  the  half-waking  state  or  at  the  end  of  an 
ether  or  chloroform  anaesthesia.  Not  only  does  the  im- 
agination run  riot  in  dreams,  but  also  slight  external 
stimuli,  such  as  the  position  of  the  bedclothes  or  the 
exposure  of  certain  parts  of  the  body,  are  important  fac- 
tors in  making  up  "such  stuff  as  dreams  are  made  of." 
Deep  hypnosis  resembles  outwardly  normal  sleep,  —  it  is 
somnambulistic  and  there  is  amnesia  or  loss  of  memory 
on  awakening.  There  is  one  important  difference,  how- 
ever, —  the  hypnotic  subject  is  suggestible  to  a  high 
degree,  either  in  the  hypnotic  state  itself  or  as  a  reaction 
on  awakening,  the  so-called  post-hypnotic  suggestion. 
There  is  a  kind  of  mental  connection  between  the  hypno- 
tized person  and  the  hypnotist;  in  other  words,  the  sub- 
ject is  en  rapport  with  his  hypnotic  dictator.  In  deep 
natural  sleep  there  is  no  suggestibility  or  psychic  con- 
nection, although  in  the  half-waking,  or  what  is  techni- 
cally known  as  the  hypnagogic  state,  there  is  a  mental 
condition  closely  analogous  to  the  true  hypnotic  sleep. 
In  this  half-waking  state,  catalepsy  or  fixation  of  the 
limbs  into  any  desired  position  may  be  brought  about,  — 
the  limbs  may  be  manipulated  as  if  made  of  wax,  and 
peculiar  somatic  sensations  may  arise,  such  as  transitory 


228  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

paralysis  or  numbness,  starlings  of  the  body  and  sen- 
sations of  falling.  Hypnotic  consciousness  and  dream 
consciousness  have  many  points  in  common,  such  as 
hallucinations,  peculiar  sensations,  and  dissociations  of  the 
personality.  No  wonder  the  savage  looks  upon  the 
dream  as  a  departure  of  the  soul  from  the  body  during 
sleep.  Dreams  also  may  be  projected  into  the  waking 
life  and  cause  hysterical  symptoms.  In  a  young  woman 
under  our  care,  following  a  dream  of  falling  down  a  hill, 
there  developed  on  awakening  a  partial  hysterical  paraly- 
sis of  the  limbs.  Forel  says,1  "Normal  sleep,  like  hypno- 
sis, is  a  condition  of  heightened  suggestibility — i.e.,  a 
dissociated  condition  —  only  as  a  rule  the  condition  of 
exhaustion  of  the  brain  is  added  and  the  connection  with 
the  hypnotist  is  wanting."  Bechterew,  however,  takes 
an  opposite  view,2  and  believes  that  hypnosis  is  nothing 
but  a  modification  of  normal  sleep,  although  he  is  com- 
pelled to  admit  that  ordinary  normal  sleep  in  most 
people  reaches  such  a  depth  that  the  influence  of  sugges- 
tion is  impossible.  The  more  we  study  the  question,  the 
more  we  are  led  to  believe  that  hypnotic  sleep,  natural 
sleep,  and  the  sleep  from  narcosis  of  ether  or  chloroform 
are  different  phenomena.  Hypnosis  is  purely  a  psychical 
state ;  natural  sleep  is  dependent  on  changes  in  the  circula- 
tion and  chemistry  of  the  body,  while  the  narcosis  of  ether 
and  chloroform  is  caused  by  the  chemical  action  of  these 
drugs  upon  the  nerve  cells  of  the  brain. 
The  artificial  stages  that  have  been  proposed  to  desig- 

1  Hypnotism  and  Psychotherapy,  p.  97. 

*W.    v.    Bechterew,    "What     is    Hypnosis?"  —  Journal    Abnormal 
Psychology,  vol.  i,  No.  i,  April,  1906. 


THE  NATURE  OF  HYPNOTISM  229 

nate  the  various  depths  of  hypnosis  are  of  limited  value, 
and  this  only  for  purposes  of  description.  This  can  be 
easily  seen  when  it  is  stated  that  the  variations  of  the 
hypnotic  sleep  shade  imperceptibly  into  one  another  and 
therefore  there  is  a  decided  overlapping  of  types.  The 
only  variations  in  the  intensity  of  hypnosis  comprise  an 
almost  imperceptible  series  of  changes  from  light  drowsi- 
ness, in  which  the  eyes  can  be  opened  only  with  difficulty 
or  not  at  all,  to  a  deep  somnambulism.  Recollection 
may  vary  from  a  clear  retention  or  a  slight  haziness  of 
memory  to  a  complete  loss  of  memory  for  the  hypnotic 
stance.  Of  course  in  all  the  stages  there  is  an  increased 
suggestibility.  When  there  is  an  amnesia  from  the  sug- 
gestions on  awakening,  these  suggestions  are  completely 
dissociated  from  the  consciousness,  and  therefore  cannot 
be  antagonized,  corrected,  or  minimized.  When  there  is 
a  deep  somnambulism  with  amnesia  on  .awakening,  the 
various  happenings  of  the  amnesic  period  can  be  recalled 
perfectly  in  the  next  hypnosis,  according  to  well-known 
psychological  laws.  For  descriptive  purposes,  Forel  has 
given  us  the  best  and  simplest  classification  of  the  degrees 
of  hypnosis.  This  classification  is  a  vast  improvement 
over  the  more  complex  one  of  Charcot  and  Bernheim. 
According  to  him  there  are  three  transitions: 

1.  Somnolence  or  sleepiness,  in  which  the  influenced 
person  can  resist  suggestion  and  open  his  eyes. 

2.  Light  sleep,  in  which  the  eyes  cannot  be  opened,  and 
obedience  to  suggestions  is  obligatory,  but  there  is  no  loss 
of  memory  on  awakening. 

3.  Deep  sleep  or  somnambulism,  with  amnesia  and 
fine  post-hypnotic  effects. 


230  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

The  various  psychic  and  physiological  accompaniments 
of  hypnosis  are  of  great  interest  as  they  serve  to  elucidate 
many  of  the  suggestive  phenomena.  Of  first  importance 
is  what  is  known  as  catalepsy,  that  is,  the  eyes  cannot  be 
opened  on  command,  the  limbs  can  be  placed  in  a  strained 
position  or  molded  like  wax  and  kept  in  this  uncomfort- 
table  position  for  a  much  longer  period  than  in  the  waking 
state,  without  any  signs  of  fatigue.  Anaesthesia  or  in- 
sensibility to  pain  may  also  take  place.  Hallucinations  * 
of  the  various  senses  (sight,  hearing,  touch,  smell,  taste) 
may  be  experimentally  produced.  The  disturbances  of 
memory,  consciousness,  and  will  have  already  been  de- 
scribed. The  breathing  usually  becomes  deeper  and  the 
pulse  rate  increased.  From  the  purely  mental  stand- 
point, fixed  ideas,  obsessions,  abnormal  impulsions  and 
habits,  tendencies  to  alcoholism  and  to  various  drugs,  on 
account  of  the  great  proneness  to  suggestion  in  the  hyp- 
notic state,  may  be  greatly  ameliorated  or  completely 
removed.  Herein  lies  the  great  therapeutic  value  of  hyp- 
notic suggestion.  When  hypnotic  suggestion  is  used  for 
medical  treatment,  it  is  impossible  and  in  fact  highly 
impracticable  to  keep  the  patient  continually  in  hypnosis. 
Left  to  himself,  the  hypnotized  subject  will  either  awaken 
spontaneously  or  there  will  be  a  gradual  transition  to  a 
natural  sleep.  Both  of  these  are  incompatible  with  sug- 
gestion. Fortunately,  however,  there  is  another  phe- 
nomenon, which  is  perhaps  the  most  important  in  the 
whole  range  of  psychotherapy.  This  is  what  is  known 
as  post-hypnotic  suggestion,  whereby  suggestions  given 
in  hypnosis  are  carried  into  and  obeyed  in  the  waking 
1  An  hallucination  may  be  denned  as  a  false  perception. 


THE  NATURE  OF  HYPNOTISM  231 

state.  The  carrying-out  of  suggestions  in  the  waking 
state,  whether  given  in  this  state,  per  se,  by  command, 
persuasion,  or  argument,  or  whether  preceded  by  the 
hypnotic  state,  furnishes  the  keystone  of  suggestive 
therapeutics  in  the  modern  scientific  sense. 

In  any  degree  of  hypnosis  there  is  increased  suggesti- 
bility and  an  uncritical  and  unantagonized  acceptance 
of  all  commands  and  requests.  These  suggestions  are 
given  in  such  a  manner  that  they  will  act,  not  in  the 
hypnotic  state  itself,  but  are  projected  into  the  future 
as  it  were,  into  the  waking  condition.  Sometimes  these 
suggestions  are  remembered  dimly  or  clearly;  some- 
times there  is  complete  oblivion  for  the  suggestions 
(amnesia),  according  to  the  depth  of  the  hypnosis.  In 
either  case,  if  the  suggestions  are  repeated  a  sufficient 
number  of  times  in  a  series  of  hypnotic  seances,  if  an  in- 
sistence on  the  impossibility  of  failure  be  added;  in 
other  words,  to  use  a  slang  phrase,  the  suggestions  are 
"  rubbed  in,"  in  the  end  they  will  be  found  to  be  success- 
ful. They  have  become  unified  with  the  personality. 
In  post-hypnotic  suggestion  there  is  a  condition  of  ab- 
solute obedience  or  automatism.  For  instance,  if  we 
hypnotize  a  patient  and  tell  him  that  at  a  certain  hour 
the  next  day  he  will  write  a  letter,  on  awakening  he  may 
or  may  not  retain  a  memory  of  the  command.  In  either 
case  it  will  not  trouble  him  until  the  exact  hour  arrives, 
when  he  will  feel  literally  impelled  to  write  the  letter 
without  knowing  the  reason  therefor.  The  suggestion 
has  been  there  all  the  time,  only  it  is  split  off,  dissociated, 
in  psychological  language,  from  his  waking  consciousness. 
If  we  hypnotize  another  patient  for  the  treatment  of 


232  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

chronic  alcoholism  and  suggest  that  he  will  no  longer 
drink,  that  he  will  not  only  lose  the  craving  for  alcohol, 
but  develop  a  positive  distaste  for  it,  this  too  will  be 
effective  when  the  patient  awakens.  Of  course,  in  the 
treatment  of  drug  habits,  a  number  of  hypnotic  stances 
are  necessary,  in  order  to  cure  the  old  habit,  to  change 
the  current  of  the  patient's  thoughts  and  to  strengthen 
the  will  power.  Another  patient  may  be  the  victim  of 
fixed  ideas  or  obsessions,  and  these  too  in  time  will  yield 
to  post-hypnotic  suggestion.  The  above  are  not  mere 
fictions,  but  stern  realities  that  can  be  found  in  the  prac- 
tice of  anyone  who  has  utilized  hypnotic  suggestion  for 
therapeutic  purposes.  The  relation  of  post-hypnotic 
suggestion  to  crime  would  exceed  both  the  limits  and  the 
purpose  of  this  chapter. 

The  dangers  of  hypnosis  have  been  greatly  exaggerated. 
In  fact,  in  the  hands  of  a  properly  qualified  and  trained 
physician  there  is  absolutely  no  danger.  Personally,  we 
have  never  seen  hypnosis  act  harmfully.  There  is  no 
weakening  of  the  will  power  as  is  popularly  supposed. 
If  the  subject  be  given  a  few  suggestions  directed  against 
headache,  eye-strain,  and  dizziness  just  before  being 
awakened,  and  if  the  awakening  be  gradually  accom- 
plished, there  are  absolutelv  no  bad  after  effects.  The 
subject  will  feel  the  same  as  if  he  had  awakened  from  a 
natural  sleep.  A  patient  that  has  once  been  hypnotized, 
however,  can  be  more  easily  hypnotized  subsequently, 
but  any  illegal  use  of  this  fact  in  the  hands  of  a  disquali- 
fied individual  can  be  easily  guarded  against  by  suggesting 
that  only  a  physician  will  be  able  to  hypnotize  him  in  the 
future  and  that  only  for  the  purpose  of  medical  treatment. 


THE  NATURE  OF  HYPNOTISM  233 

We  must  here  emphatically  denounce  as  inhuman  and  bar- 
baric the  hypnotizing  of  persons  for  purposes  of  public  ex- 
hibition by  traveling  charlatans.  Here  the  real  moral 
danger  of  hypnosis  lies,  for  hypnosis  is  not  a  plaything,  but 
a  sound  psychological  precedure  which  should  be  used  only 
for  therapeutic  purposes  or  for  the  analysis  of  certain 
abnormal  mental  states.  If  a  hypnotized  patient  be  left 
to  himself,  there  will  either  be  a  transition  into  a  natural 
sleep  or  he  will  awaken  spontaneously  after  a  certain 
length  of  time.  As  the  hypnotic  state  is  brought  about 
by  suggestion,  so  suggestion  can  terminate  it  at  any  time. 
As  to-day  the  theory  of  suggestion  is  the  only  accepted 
one,  it  may  be  stated  at  the  outset  that  the  various 
mechanical  methods  of  hypnotizing  are  merely  devices. 
The  basis  of  all  these  is  suggestion.  Of  course,  no  one 
method  is  universal  in  its  application;  it  varies  with  the 
individual  and  the  nature  of  the  disease.  Various  inves- 
tigators seem,  however,  to  have  a  personal  preference  for 
certain  methods,  but  this  is  more  the  result  of  habit  and 
individual  training  than  of  any  special  virtue  in  a  par- 
ticular method. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE  OF  HYPNOTISM 

WE  have  now  reached  the  most  important  part  of  our 
subject,  and  that  is,  the  therapeutic  use  of  hypnotic  sug- 
gestion. Janet  says  (Lowell  Lectures)  that  "there  is  no 
physiological  function  which  is  exempt  from  modification 
by  hypnotic  influence,  if  not  complete  control  by  it." 
This  is  true  only  within  certain  limits,  for  hypnosis  must 
not  be  looked  upon  as  a  panacea  for  all  the  physical  and 
psychical  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to.  While  its  field  of  action 
is  limited,  yet  within  that  field  it  is  absolute  master. 
Since  it  has  been  found  that  hypnosis  is  practically  only 
effective  in  those  diseases  designated  as  functional  as 
distinguished  from  the  organic  type,  the  first  perquisite 
is  a  thorough  and  careful  examination  of  the  patient  by  a 
competent  medical  man.  This  examination  should  com- 
prise a  minute  study  of  the  disease,  its  origin  and  symp- 
toms; it  should  be  determined  if  the  disease  is  organic  or 
functional,  and  if  the  latter,  are  there  any  organic  com- 
plications into  which  physical  therapy  must  enter  ?  These 
are  facts  of  the  highest  importance,  for  without  these  a 
serious  and  even  a  fatal  mistake  might  be  made  if  we 
attempted  to  treat  an  organic  disease  by  hypnosis  where  it 
would  require  surgery  or  some  specific  drug.  It  is  into 
these  errors  that  the  various  irregular  sects  and  prac- 
titioners of  suggestive  therapeutics,  mind  cure,  and  mental 

234 


THE  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE  OF  HYPNOTISM      235 

healing  have  fallen.  They  disregard  the  physical  and' 
mental  examination  and  look  upon  disease  as  purely 
imaginary,  as  an  error  of  mortal  mind.  What  surgery 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  barber  surgeons  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  so  to-day  psychotherapy  in  the  hands  of  the  mind 
curists  occupies  an  analogous  position.  Their  errors  fill 
our  hospitals  and  clinics  and  add  to  the  number  of 
obituary  notices.  We  only  hear  of  their  few  successes; 
of  their  many  mistakes  they  preserve  a  wise  silence. 
But  with  a  proper  medical  examination  such  errors 
are  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  although  it  narrows 
the  field  of  hypnotic  therapy,  yet  it  greatly  increases 
its  efficiency.  This  examination  is  just  as  important 
for  the  patient  as  for  the  physician.  Now  in  what 
functional  diseases  has  hypnosis  been  most  effective 
and  what  are  its  results?  To  this  we  will  briefly  turn. 
The  medical  aspects  of  hypnotism  are  of  great  practical 
importance  and,  as  previously  stated,  the  basis  of  all 
hypnotic  therapy  is  found  in  the  increased  suggestibility 
of  the  hypnotic  state  and  in  the  phenomena  of  post- 
hypnotfc  suggestion.  Hypnosis  is  most  efficacious  in 
the  so-called  functional  nervous  diseases.  Hysteria  with 
its  manifold  symptoms  is  very  amenable  to  hypnotic 
treatment.  Hysterical  symptoms  all  tend  to  disappear 
in  the  hypnotic  sleep,  a  fact  which  speaks  emphatically 
for  the  soundness  of  the  modern  theories  of  hysteria.  By 
this  we  mean  that  hysteria  is  a  mental  disease  whose 
symptoms  are  due  to  a  dissociation  or  splitting  of  the 
personality.  In  the  hypnotic  state  the  splitting  disappears 
and  the  hysteric  individual  remains  well  while  in  this 
condition.  On  being  awakened  the  symptoms  tend  to 


236  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

recur,  but  by  repeated  hypnotizing  there  is  established  a 
psychic  re-education  through  the  suggestions,  and  ulti- 
mately a  cure  results.  Hysterical  paralysis  and  convulsions, 
losses  of  sensation  (anaesthesia)  or  of  memory  (amnesia), 
losses  of  the  voice  (aphonia),  the  various  digestive  and 
motor  disturbances  of  hysteria,  yield  to  hypnotic  treat- 
ment. Many  of  the  sudden  recoveries  of  persons  who 
have  been  paralyzed  for  years  are  cases  of  pure  hysteria. 
If  the  paralysis  were  of  an  organic  nature,  that  is,  caused 
by  a  hemorrhage  or  softening  of  the  brain  or  spinal  cord, 
such  a  recovery  could  not  occur.  In  one  case  of  hysteria 
with  convulsions  the  attacks  disappeared  under  hypnotic 
suggestion;  in  another  case  of  hysteria  with  peculiar 
wandering  acts,  and  a  complete  loss  of  memory  for  the 
same,  these  memories  were  recovered  in  the  hypnotic  state 
and  remained  permanent  on  awakening.  In  still  another 
case  of  hysterical  paralysis  of  an  arm,  suggestion  brought 
about  a  rapid  recovery.  As  hysteria  with  all  its  symp- 
toms is  due  to  a  dissociation  of  the  personality,  so  hyp- 
notic suggestion  can  synthetize  this  dissociation  and  bring 
about  a  cure. 

Another  field  where  hypnosis  yields  brilliant  results  is 
in  the  various  sexual  aberrations.  There  is  perhaps 
nothing  in  the  whole  range  of  nervous  diseases  which  tends 
to  make  the  individual  so  miserable,  as  the  unfortunate 
victims  of  these  aberrations  are  usually  persons  of  high 
intelligence  and  culture.  In  these  cases  hypnosis  must  be 
repeated  a  great  many  times  until  the  abnormal  state  is 
firmly  and  perfectly  replaced  by  healthier  associations 
and  habits  of  thought.  As  a  rule,  most  of  these  patients 
are  difficult  to  hypnotize. 


THE  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE  OF  HYPNOTISM     237 

These  sexual  aberrations  or  psychopathies  are  very 
wide  in  their  range  and  of  great  medical  and  forensic 
interest.  They  comprise  such  vices  as  masturbation,  the 
condition  known  as  sexual  neurasthenia,  sexual  hyper- 
excitability,  the  various  acts  of  active  or  passive  cruelty 
or  violence  with  lust  (masochism  and  sadism),  the  asso- 
ciation of  sexual  ideas  with  certain  portions  of  the  female 
person  or  with  certain  articles  of  female  attire  (fetichism), 
and  finally  the  development  of  a  homosexual  tendency 
and  a  contrary  sexual  instinct.  Sometimes  these  un- 
fortunate individuals  are  led  to  crime,  such  as  lust-murder, 
or  the  larceny  of  articles  of  female  attire.  Many  of  the 
petty  thievings  of  women's  gloves  or  handkerchiefs,  or 
the  so-called  "hair  clippers"  which  sporadically  create 
excitement  in  our  large  cities,  are  in  reality  sexual  psy- 
chopaths. Krafft-Ebing  has  given  us  a  masterly  descrip- 
tion of  these  sexual  aberrations,  while  Schrenck-Notzing 
has  shown  how  much  suggestive  therapeutics  in  the  form 
of  hypnosis  can  do  for  these  diseases.  Our  own  obser- 
vations on  the  value  of  hypnotic  therapy  hi  the  sexual 
psychopathies  have  been  in  harmony  with  the  authorities 
cited  above. 

The  most  prevalent  nervous  disease  of  modern  times  is 
neurasthenia  or  nervous  exhaustion.  This  disease,  more 
than  any  other,  taxes  all  the  patience  and  ingenuity  of 
the  physician.  Most  of  the  unfortunate  victims  of  this 
disease  are  chronic  sufferers.  Perhaps  no  human  malady 
has  had  so  many  lines  of  treatment  suggested  for  its  cure. 
Rest  and  isolation  seem  to  have  been  the  most  successful; 
drug  treatment  has  been  weighed  in  the  balance  and 
found  wanting;  electricity  has  but  a  limited  value. 


238  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

Neurasthenia  like  hysteria  has  many  symptoms,  but  the 
principal  complaints  of  the  patient  are  the  rapid  exhaus- 
tion, the  sleeplessness,  the  various  fleeting  pains,  gastric 
distress,  palpitation  of  the  heart,  headache,  and  dizziness. 
One  or  several  or  all  of  these  may  be  present,  in  various 
grades  of  intensity.  Many  chemical  and  physical  theories 
have  been  proposed  to  explain  neurasthenia,  but  the  latest 
researches  seem  to  show  that  we  are  dealing  with  a  dis- 
ease of  the  subconscious,  a  dissociation  of  the  personality. 
Much  can  be  accomplished  in  the  way  of  treatment  by 
waking  suggestion  and  a  system  of  psychic  re-education, 
which  comprises  persuasion  and  a  rational  explanation  of 
the  symptoms  to  the  patient.  In  fact,  surprising  results 
have  been  secured  by  these  psychotherapeutic  conversa- 
tions, within  recent  years.  If  we  approach  neurasthenia 
from  the  sound,  psychological  standpoint,  much  can  be 
accomplished  by  hypnotic  suggestion.  The  fatigue  can  be 
made  to  disappear,  the  cardiac  symptoms  to  vanish,  and 
by  this  system  of  psychic  re-education,  the  patient  can  be 
taught  to  pay  less  attention  to  himself,  to  become  less 
introspective.  Continual  mental  analysis  is  the  worst 
thing  that  can  befall  a  neurasthenic,  and  once  this  demon 
of  analysis  has  taken  possession  of  the  mind  it  can  plunge 
one  into  the  lowest  depths  of  psychic  misery  and  torture. 
This  is  why  neurasthenics  are  so  miserable;  they  are  too 
self-analytical  and  introspective.  This  self-analysis  can 
lead  to  something  else,  namely,  the  condition  known  as 
hypochondriasis,  wherein  the  patient  is  continually  exam- 
ining his  fleeting  bodily  pains  and  finally  comes  to  believe 
that  he  is  suffering  from  a  severe  organic  disease.  He 
does  not  for  a  moment  consider  that  they  are  purely 


THE  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE  OF  HYPNOTISM     239 

functional.  Palpitation  to  him  means  heart  disease ; 
headache,  brain  tumor;  gastric  symptoms,  an  incurable 
affection  of  the  stomach.  Hypnosis  can  overcome  this  self- 
analysis,  the  bane  of  all  neurasthenics,  perhaps  the  most 
important  thing  that  accounts  for  the  chronic  nature  of 
the  disease.  It  can  direct  the  thought  to  healthier  chan- 
nels; it  can  force  the  patient  to  stop  thinking  of  himself, 
and  when  this  is  accomplished,  the  physical  symptoms  tend 
to  disappear  and  the  patient  is  on  the  road  to  recovery. 
Many  of  the  much  vaunted  and  advertised  cures  of  the 
mental  healers,  who  claim  to  have  successfully  treated 
organic  diseases,  are  merely  cases  of  neurasthenia  that 
have  become  hypochondriacal,  that  believed  they  were 
ill  in  body  when  in  reality  they  were  merely  sick  in  mind. 
Of  course,  many  cases  of  neurasthenia  are  associated 
with  poor  blood  states  (anaemia),  loss  in  weight,  and  other 
purely  somatic  disorders.  Under  these  conditions,  it 
becomes  necessary  to  combine  rational,  medical  treat- 
ment with  the  purely  psychic  procedures. 

What  is  known  as  psychasthenia,  which  is  really  a 
name  for  the  complex  mental  state  accompanying  fixed 
ideas  and  obsessions,  is  rather  more  difficult  to  treat 
by  hypnosis.  Many  of  the  symptoms  resemble  neuras- 
thenia, but  the  fixed  ideas  predominate,  the  mental 
torture  is  greater,  crises  of  intense  anxiety  may  arise  and 
there  is  often  a  feeling  of  unreality.  Like  neurasthenia 
and  hysteria,  its  basis  is  purely  psychic,  what  is  known 
as  a  disturbance  in  the  mental  level,  a  lowering  of  the 
psychological  tension.  By  persistence,  however,  these 
obsessions  or  fixed  ideas  which  torture  the  mind  of  the 
patient,  by  reason  of  his  appreciation  of  their  absurdity, 


240  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

can  be  finally  annihilated.  For  instance,  one  psychas- 
thenic  was  tortured  by  the  fear  of  stammering,  another 
was  possessed  of  the  fixed  idea  that  his  throat  was  closing 
up  and  therefore  he  must  continually  swallow  to  keep 
the  passage  open.  Both  of  these  practically  recovered 
under  hypnotic  treatment. 

Many  functional  aches  and  pains,  sleeplessness,  the 
recurrence  of  distressing  dreams,  drug  habits,  such  as 
chronic  alcoholism,  stammering,  constipation,  irregular 
menstruation  without  organic  complications,  the  various 
pernicious  habits  of  childhood  such  as  bed-wetting, 
yield  brilliant  results  by  hypnosis.  Many  forms  of 
sleeplessness  or  insomnia  are  caused  by  the  patient 
acquiring  a  fixed  idea  that  he  cannot  sleep.  This  fixed 
idea  usually  reaches  its  greatest  intensity  at  bedtime  and 
so  keeps  the  patient  awake.  Hypnotism  destroys  this 
fixed  idea  and  sleep  follows,  without  the  danger  of  acquir- 
ing a  drug  habit.  When  the  insomnia  is  purely  sympto- 
matic, however,  as  occurs  in  many  forms  of  mental 
diseases,  a  different  line  of  treatment  is  indicated,  — 
baths,  drugs,  rest  in  bed,  etc.  In  one  patient  this  fixed 
idea  that  he  would  be  unable  to  sleep  brought  on  an 
intense  insomnia  and  caused  several  months  of  severe 
mental  torture.  Light  hypnosis  after  a  short  time 
effected  complete  recovery. 

The  dangers  of  prolonged  insomnia  are  manifold.  It 
can  lead  to  intense  psychic  pain,  to  despair  bordering  on 
suicide,  to  loss  in  weight,  extreme  restlessness,  sense 
deceptions,  and  finally  even  mental  diseases  (exhaustion 
psychoses)  may  arise.  An  interesting  research  on  the 
experimental  effects  of  loss  of  sleep  has  been  carried  out  by 


THE  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE  OF  HYPNOTISM     241 

Prof.  G.  T.  W.  Patrick  and  Dr.  J.  Allen  Gilbert.1  Subjects 
were  kept  awake  for  about  ninety  hours  and  at  six-hour 
intervals  a  series  of  pyschological  tests  were  made.  In 
one  subject,  the  experiments  were  discontinued,  as  hallu- 
cinations of  sight  arose ;  he  saw  innumerable  insects  run- 
ning on  the  floor  and  ceiling  of  the  laboratory. 

The  hypnotic  treatment  of  cocainism  and  morphinism 
has  not  been  very  successful.  Such  cases  are  best  iso- 
lated in  a  sanatorium  and  the  drug  gradually  withdrawn. 
The  absolute  unreliability  of  the  cocaine  or  morphine 
habitue",  the  intense  craving  for  the  drug,  the  fearful  de- 
pression, pains,  restlessness,  hallucinations,  weakness  and 
often  collapse  which  accompanies  its  withdrawal,  show 
how  important  is  careful  nursing  and  constant  watchful- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  physician.  These  can  only  be 
secured  in  an  institution,  where  the  patient  is  placed  in 
a  new  environment  and  carefully  protected  from  securing 
the  drug  surreptitiously.  In  fact  the  deceit  practised 
by  these  patients,  which  is  due  to  the  moral  obliquity 
caused  by  the  drug  itself,  is  almost  incredible. 

Hypnotism  has  yielded  good  results  in  chronic  alcohol- 
ism. The  patient  can  remain  at  his  work  or  business, 
can  live  with  his  family  and  prolonged  sanatorium 
residence  becomes  unnecessary.  Hypnosis  strengthens 
the  will  power  of  the  chronic  alcoholic  and  creates  a  pro- 
found distaste  for  liquor.  These  two  factors  exert  the 
strongest  influence  in  preventing  a  recurrence  of  the  habit. 
Medical  and  physical  treatment,  however,  may  be  neces- 
sary in  conjunction  with  the  hypnotism,  as  chronic 

i  "The  Effects  of  the  Loss  of  Sleep,"  Psychological  Review,  vol.  iii, 
pp.  469-483,  September,  1896. 


242  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

alcoholic  indulgence  has  a  particularly  pernicious  influence 
on  the  nervous  system,  the  arteries,  and  the  digestive 
organs.  On  the  nervous  system,  there  may  result  de- 
generation of  the  nerves  (poly neuritis),  various  forms  of 
alcoholic  insanity  (delirium  tremens,  paranoia,  a  state 
resembling  general  paralysis,  alcoholic  dementia) ;  thicken- 
ing of  the  arteries  (arterio  sclerosis)  may  take  place  and 
lead  to  apoplexy  or  degeneration  of  the  heart  muscle,  and 
finally  B right's  disease,  chronic  affections  of  the  stomach, 
and  cirrhosis  of  the  liver.  Of  course,  the  effects  on  the 
nervous  system  are  the  most  severe,  degeneration  of  the 
peripheral  nerves,  diseases  of  the  brain  and  spinal  cord, 
insanity,  peculiar  disorders  of  memory  (alcoholic  amnesia). 
The  specific  effect  of  alcohol  on  the  nerve  cell  itself  has 
already  been  discussed.  The  effect  of  even  moderate 
doses  of  alcohol  is  very  unfavorable;  the  attention  is 
lowered,  the  mental  aptitude,  especially  for  arithmetical 
calculations,  is  considerably  reduced,  and  association  time 
becomes  lengthened.  These  effects  can  last  for  more 
than  twenty-four  hours  after  the  last  dose.  On  physical 
exercise,  contrary  to  the  popular  opinion,  heavy  work  is 
not  made  lighter  and  fatigue  more  rapidly  supervenes. 
It  is  true  that  alcohol  increases  the  facilitation  of  muscular 
movements  at  first,  but  there  is  a  decided  lessening  of 
the  power  of  muscular  work  and  of  the  quantity  of  work 
performed,  on  account  of  this  rapid  fatigue.  Kraepelin, 
who  has  conducted  exhaustive  experiments  on  the  psychi- 
cal action  of  alcohol,  concludes  that  it  cannot  be  classed 
among  the  harmless  condiments.1 

1  For  special  articles  see  A.  Forel,  "The  Alcohol  Question,"  American 
Journal  of  Insanity,  No.  2,  1900.     Kraepelin  and  Kurz,  "The  persisting 


THE  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE  OF  HYPNOTISM     243 

Alcoholism  or  inebriety  is  a  disease,  and  the  chief 
factors  in  its  production  are  heredity  and  environment. 
Alcohol  is  used  for  its  effect  upon  the  nervous  system  and 
seldom  for  the  taste  of  liquor  alone.  The  numerous  ad- 
vertised specifics  for  alcoholism  are  useless  as  each  patient 
and  each  case  is  a  law  unto  itself  and  requires  individual 
study  and  treatment. 

It  has  been  generally  conceded  that,  of  all  methods  of 
treatment,  for  chronic  alcoholism,  without  organic  com- 
plication or  severe  mental  disease,  hypnotic  suggestion 
is  the  most  successful.  The  alcoholic  as  a  rule  is  easily 
hypnotized,  except  when  the  subject  is  intoxicated,  on 
account  of  the  exciting  effect  of  alcohol  on  the  brain. 
The  desire  for  drink  should  be  totally  destroyed,  the  will 
power  strengthened,  and  new  associations  built  up. 
There  should  be  no  tapering  down;  total  abstinence 
from  the  start  is  the  key-note  of  success.  This  pro- 
cedure is  without  danger,  although  some  medical  or 
physical  treatment  may  be  necessary  in  the  beginning  in 
addition  to  the  hypnosis.  The  length  of  time  that 
liquor  has  been  used  is  no  centra-indication  to  treatment 
by  hypnotic  suggestion.  In  fact  several  of  our  cases 
were  alcoholics  of  years  standing,  and  yet  all  completely 
recovered  by  hypnosis. 

By  many,  chronic  alcoholism  and  dipsomania  are  be- 
lieved to  be  identical,  but  from  a  medical  standpoint  there 

influence  of  slight  chronic  alcoholic  intoxication,"  PsychologischeArbeiten, 
vol.  iii,  p.  2  and  3,  1900.  Ach,  "The  Influence  of  Certain  Drugs  on 
Attention,"  Ibid.  Kraepelin,  "Recent  Investigations  Concerning  the 
Psychical  Action  of  Alcohol,"  Munch.  Med.  Wochenschrift,  Oct.  3,  1899. 
I.  H.  Coriat,  "The  Mental  Disturbances  of  Alcoholic  Neuritis," 
American  Journal  of  Insanity,  vol.  Ixii,  No.  4,  April,  1906.  , 


244  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

is  a  distinct  difference.  The  chronic  alcoholic  is  the 
steady  tippler,  the  man  who  consumes  a  certain  number 
of  glasses  of  liquor  daily,  with  perhaps  an  occasional  spree. 
In  dipsomania,  however,  the  tendency  to  drink  to  excess 
is  periodic.  The  individual  for  months  remains  a  total 
abstainer,  hi  fact  he  may  have  a  positive  disgust  for  liquor 
and  a  keen  appreciation  of  the  moral  degradation  of  the 
drunkard.  Then  suddenly  he  begins  to  be  restless  and 
depressed,  may  be  troubled  with  dizziness,  leaves  his 
home  and  business,  wanders  around  to  various  low  resorts 
for  days  or  weeks,  all  the  time  drinking  all  kinds  of  liquor 
in  a  perfectly  bestial  manner.  Rather  suddenly  he  ceases 
drinking,  the  restlessness  and  depression  disappear,  and 
he  returns  to  his  work  with  a  sense  of  shame,  and  usually 
with  either  a  very  hazy  memory  or  a  complete  amnesia  for 
his  behavior  and  wanderings.  Then  he  remains  sober 
until  the  next  attack.  The  peculiar  periodicity  of  the 
disease  and  the  associated  mental  condition  has  led  many 
to  consider  dipsomania  as  a  form  of  epilepsy. 

We  have  secured  good  results  by  hypnosis  in  the  bed- 
wetting  and  habit  spasms  of  children  when  all  other 
treatment  had  failed.  Here  the  hypnosis  was  combined 
with  a  psychic  or  motor  re-education  of  the  child.  One 
case  of  bed -wetting  which  had  existed  for  a  number  of 
years,  and  another  of  facial  habit  spasm  from  which  the 
patient  suffered  since  a  small  child,  yielded  to  these 
methods.  Of  course  we  must  be  careful  to  see  that 
organic  complications  are  absent.  Hypnotism  has  also 
been  used  to  some  extent  as  a  part  of  suggestive  pedagogy, 
in  the  training  of  incorrigible  children  and  of  their  vicious 
habits. 


THE  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE  OF  HYPNOTISM     245 

The  conditions  and  diseases  mentioned  are  only  a  few 
in  which  hypnotic  suggestion  is  indicated.  An  enumera- 
tion of  all  the  diseases  to  which  hypnotic  therapy  has  been 
applied  by  various  investigators  would  make  a  formidable 
list.  But  they  have  all  one  characteristic  in  common. 
None  of  these  possess  any  anatomical  basis  so  far  as 
known.  We  are  dealing  with  purely  functional  disturb- 
ances, the  tissue  itself  as  tissue  being  unaffected.  Most 
of  these  diseases  are  of  a  chronic  nature,  but  patience  and 
perseverance  will  enable  one  to  succeed.  Prolonged  treat- 
ment is  usually  necessary,  although  of  course  a  shorter 
time  is  required  for  the  more  acute  conditions.  The 
patient's  nervous  system  must  be  remolded,  as  it  were, 
along  new  lines,  and  this  takes  time.  The  use  of  hypnosis 
in  disease  may  well  be  designated  as  a  system  of  psychic 
re-education  or  training. 

However,  there  are  a  few  other  important  points  which 
we  wish  especially  to  emphasize.  Even  in  the  purely 
functional  nervous  diseases  hypnotic  suggestion  some- 
times fails,  either  because  of  the  chronic  nature  of  the 
disease  and  the  formation  of  new  habits  of  thought,  or 
perhaps  because  of  our  ignorance  of  certain  fundamental 
psychological  laws.  Hypnotic  suggestion  is  but  one  of 
the  many  methods  of  psychotherapy.  It  is  not  applicable 
to  or  indicated  in  all  functional  nervous  diseases,  for  psy- 
chotherapeutic  methods  must  vary  with  the  disease  and 
with  the  individual.  In  any  method  of  psychotherapy 
or  psychic  re-education,  other  lines  of  treatment  are 
frequently  necessary  in  conjunction  with  the  purely  psy- 
chic procedures  —  drugs,  baths,  systematic  exercises, 
motor  re-education,  diet,  etc. 


246  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

Hypnosis  has  but  a  limited  value  in  insanity.  Before 
the  organic  brain  diseases,  such  as  senile  dementia  or 
general  paralysis,  it  is  helpless.  Here,  other  lines  of 
treatment  are  necessary.  In  the  mild  depressions  and 
slight  delusional  states,  however,  psychotherapeutic  con- 
versations, without  going  to  the  depth  of  hypnotic  sleep, 
are  sometimes  beneficial.  Delirium  due  to  drugs  or  fever 
requires,  of  course,  appropriate  medical  treatment.  Krafft- 
Ebing  says:  "Successful  treatment  by  hypnotic  suggestion 
can  only  be  expected  in  functional  psychoses,  and,  too,  in 
patients  who  are  aware  that  they  are  sick  and  who  lend 
themselves  to  hypnosis."  Of  course,  the  entire  subject 
has  its  theoretical  and  practical  limitations.  A  person 
may  suffer  from  a  mental  disease  of  a  mild  type  or  a  severe 
nervous  disease  with  mental  symptoms,  without  the 
necessity  of  going  to  an  insane  hospital.  It  is  in  these 
milder  affections  that  hypnotic  suggestion  is  useful. 


CHAPTER  XII 

PSYCHIC  AND  MOTOR  RE-EDUCATION 

THERE  is  one  aspect  of  psychotherapeutics  which  has 
received  but  a  limited  degree  of  attention,  and  yet  when 
this  phase  of  the  problem  is  more  clearly  understood,  we 
can  hope  for  further  advances  along  these  lines.  We  refer 
to  what  may  be  termed  the  psychological  mechanism 
of  psychotherapeutics.  Certain  beneficial  results  can  be 
produced  by  means  of  the  various  forms  of  suggestion, 
but  how  these  results  are  produced  offers  at  present  a 
wide  field  for  speculation.  When  we  understand  how 
suggestion  from  without  can  cure  an  hysterical  paralysis 
which  the  hysteric  is  unable  to  control  by  suggestion  from 
within  (auto-suggestion),  or  how  a  fixed  idea  or  a  phobia 
can  be  eliminated  from  consciousness,  we  have  advanced 
towards  a  final  solution  of  the  problem.  To  state  that 
in  hypnosis  or  in  certain  states  of  abstraction  or  distrac- 
tion there  arises  a  condition  of  hyper-suggestibility,  is  to 
leave  a  portion  of  the  question  unanswered. 

On  ultimate  analysis  it  appears  that  psychotherapeutic 
procedures  are  either  substitution,  suppression,  inhibition, 
elimination,  analytical  or  educational.  In  certain  mor- 
bid psychopathic  or  neuropathic  states  we  attempt  to 
substitute  a  healthier  emotional  complex  for  the  existing 
diseased  condition.  In  still  others,  inhibition  or  sup- 
pression is  the  proper  line  of  treatment.  Sometimes, 

247 


248  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

when  the  symptoms  are  caused  by  the  voluntary  sup- 
pression of  some  emotion  or  emotional  episode,  a  full 
confession  on  the  part  of  the  patient  will  relieve  the  men- 
tal tension.  By  analytical  we  mean  an  inquiry  into  the 
origin  and  nature  of  the  mental  or  nervous  state,  by  means 
of  special  technical  methods,  thus  laying  bare  the  essen- 
tial mechanism  of  the  particular  disorder.  This  is  es- 
pecially difficult  when  we  are  dealing  with  dissociations 
of  consciousness,  such  as  psycho-epileptic  attacks  or  re- 
current sub-conscious  ideas,  automatisms  or  motor  states. 
With  the  exception  of  psychic  re-education,  all  of  the 
above  subjects  have  been  discussed  more  or  less  exten- 
sively, but  these  educational  methods  are  so  important 
that  a  more  extended  account  of  their  principles  seemed 
necessary. 

In  many  cases  the  patient  has  become  the  victim  of  a 
faulty  habit  of  thinking  and  has  thus  built  up  a  series  of 
abnormal  associations.  These  abnormal  tendencies  have 
not  only  served  to  give  the  disease  an  indefinite  continu- 
ance, but  the  unhealthy  auto-suggestion  has  created 
artificial  symptoms.  Thus  a  vicious  circle  is  continually 
being  formed.  It  is  just  in  these  severe  and  chronic 
cases  that  another  method  of  suggestive  treatment  is 
indicated,  what  is  known  as  psychic  re-education.  Psychic 
re-education  may  be  briefly  defined  as  a  system  of  mental 
gymnastics  or  rather  a  systematized  method  of  applying 
suggestion,  whatever  particular  method  is  used.  Of 
course  all  psychotherapy  is  mental  re-education,  but  the 
term  is  best  limited  to  those  methods  which  attempt  the 
mental  reconstruction  of  the  patient. 

Education  forms  certain  habits  and  these  habits  be- 


PSYCHIC  AND  MOTOR  RE-EDUCATION        249 

come  "set"  in  our  nervous  system.  One  of  the  peculiar- 
ities of  the  nervous  system  is  that  it  is  plastic  in  nature. 
This  plasticity  decreases  with  old  age  and  therefore  re- 
education is  more  difficult  in  the  old  than  in  the  young, 
or  in  the  chronic  than  in  the  more  acute  diseased  condi- 
tions. Thus  we  see  that  the  principles  on  which  psychic 
and  motor  re-education  are  based,  are  physiological 
principles.  We  are  dealing  with  the  dynamics  of  living 
matter.  Living  matter,  and  this  applies  particularly  to 
the  substance  of  which  the  nervous  system  is  composed, 
is  distinctly  plastic  in  character.  It  is  thus  able  to  store 
up  stimuli  and  impressions  in  the  same  manner  that  the 
retina  stores  up  colors  and  reproduces  them  as  after  im- 
ages. The  frequent  repetition  of  stimuli  makes  a  firmer 
impression  on  this  plastic  nerve  substance  and  this  sum- 
mation of  stimuli  finally  produces  so  firm  an  organiza- 
tion that  it  can  be  obliterated  only  with  difficulty.  Even 
a  minimal  stimulus  if  applied  for  a  sufficiently  prolonged 
period  can  leave  its  traces  on  the  nervous  system.  In  an 
analogous  manner,  constant  suggestions,  applied  judi- 
ciously, at  first  simple  in  nature,  but  gradually  increas- 
ing in  complexity,  can  remold  the  plastic  nervous  system, 
whether  in  health  or  in  disease.  The  repetition  of  bad 
movements,  or  constant  auto-suggestion  along  unhealthy 
lines  of  thought,  may  at  first  seem  foreign  to  the  organ- 
ism, but  by  the  constant  repetition  and  summation  of 
these  stimuli,  a  habit  becomes  established,  either  of  mor- 
bid consciousness  or  of  abnormal  motility.  What  at 
first  was  accomplished  consciously  and  with  effort,  now 
becomes  an  automatic  action.  A  person  will  develop  a 
peculiar  mannerism  as  an  act  of  defense  towards  some 


250  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

external  stimulus;  for  instance,  he  may  twist  his  head  in 
a  peculiar  manner  to  avoid  contact  with  the  roughened 
edge  of  a  collar.  At  first  this  is  a  so-called  reaction  of 
defense,  but  by  constant  repetition  this  normal  movement 
may  degenerate  into  a  pathological  habit  spasm.  The 
individual  has  broken  down  the  line  of  normal  resistance 
in  his  nervous  system:  the  movement  has  become  thought- 
less, automatic.  The  treatment  of  such  a  condition  con- 
sists in  leading  the  individual  back  to  his  normal  state  by 
means  of  carefully  co-ordinated  muscular  exercises  and 
by  an  increasing,  conscious  inhibition  of  the  abnormal 
muscular  movements.  It  is  a  discipline  in  will  power 
as  well  as  in  motor  training.  This  is  motor  re-education, 
a  form  of  psychotherapy  which  is  also  of  great  value  in 
hysterical  paralysis  and  in  the  inco-ordinated  muscular 
movements  of  locomotor  ataxia. 

The  evolution  of  many  psychic  conditions  (fixed  ideas, 
phobias,  obsessions,  hypochondriacal,  neurasthenic  and 
hysterical  states)  has  frequently  a  closely  related  mechan- 
ism. Many  of  these  are  association  neuroses  or  the  re- 
sults of  habits  of  expectation  and  apprehension.  We 
are  really  dealing  with  recurrent  mental  or  nervous  con- 
ditions. The  mechanism  may  also  work  in  an  opposite 
direction.  Constant  repetition  along  normal  lines  of 
thinking  or  motor  activity  may  react  in  a  favorable  manner 
on  the  nervous  system,  for  the  function  makes  the  organ, 
just  as  much  as  the  organ  makes  the  function.  Thus 
the  training  of  the  will  is  an  important  factor  in  psychic 
re-education,  for  the  will  is  nothing  but  a  selective  action 
or  reaction  to  certain  ideas.  By  constant  repetition, 
this  selection  can  be  directed  into  almost  any  channels. 


PSYCHIC  AND  MOTOR  RE-EDUCATION         251 

This  is  the  basis  of  psychic  and  motor  re-education,  and 
educational  methods  are  so  successful  because  the  ner- 
vous system  is  a  plastic  and  not  a  rigid  tissue.  We  can 
educate  ourselves  to  good  habits  of  thinking,  feeling,  and 
doing  as  well  as  to  bad.  Thus  we  have  seen  the  physio- 
logical principles  of  psychic  and  motor  re-education  and 
are  now  prepared  to  consider  the  more  practical  aspects 
of  the  question. 

Psychic  re-education  is  a  combination  of  mental  thera- 
peutics and  physiological  hygiene.  Educational  treat- 
ment is  complex,  requires  considerable  time  to  carry  out 
properly,  and  taxes  all  our  patience  and  ingenuity,  because 
of  the  individual  variations  of  even  similar  diseases.  It 
would  exceed  the  scope  of  this  chapter  to  consider  all 
these  points  in  detail,  as  they  involve  technicalities  into 
which  we  cannot  enter  here.  We  must  be  careful,  how- 
ever, to  maintain  a  neutral  attitude,  for  in  some  cases 
suggestion  is  necessary:  in  others,  only  educational 
methods  are  of  value.  A  rational  psychotherapy  is  an 
individual  problem  and .  must  be  modified  according  to 
the  personality  of  the  patient  and  the  character  of  the 
disease.  To  treat  all  functional  disorders  blindly  by  the 
same  methods  spells  failure. 

A  few  details  taken  from  actual  cases  will  perhaps  make 
these  principles  of  psychic  re-education  clearer.  It  is  in 
the  chronic  neurasthenic  and  hysterical  states  that  these 
methods  of  mental  gymnastics  have  been  most  success- 
fully utilized.  In  many  cases  of  neurasthenia,  particularly 
those  of  long  duration,  rest,  isolation  and  over- feeding 
during  the  prevalence  of  the  more  acute  stage,  have  been 
used  with  little  benefit.  So  long  as  such  theories  of 


252  RELIGION  AND   MEDICINE 

auto-intoxication  or  of  visceral  ptosis  were  promulgated 
to  explain  the  neurasthenic  symptom-complex,  and  treat- 
ment was  instituted  along  the  lines  suggested  by  these 
theories,  just  so  long  did  therapeutics  fail  to  accomplish 
the  desired  result  —  the  cure  of  the  patient.  We  do  not 
mean  to  affirm  that  in  certain  acute  exhaustive  states  of 
the  nervous  system  rest  is  not  beneficial,  but  we  do 
claim  that  in  those  cases  where  the  fatigue  is  not  a  real 
fatigue,  but  only  a  habit  fatigue,  we  are  very  apt  to 
create  artificial  symptoms.  If  we  interpret  neurasthenia 
as  a  disintegration  of  the  personality,  our  efforts  at  cure 
must  be  directed  along  educational  lines,  to  synthetize 
the  dissociated  states  of  consciousness.  Of  course  ap- 
propriate methods  of  hygiene  and  direct  suggestion  will 
have  to  be  combined  with  our  educational  procedures  in 
order  to  suppress  individual  symptoms.  The  neuras- 
thenic is  the  victim  of  an  apprehension  and  an  expec- 
tation which  has  reached  the  permanency  of  a  fixed 
idea,  and  thus  there  arises  an  emotional  complex,  asso- 
ciated with  feelings  of  anxiety  •  and  depression  and  not 
with  those  of  health  and  well-being.  Constant,  morbid 
auto-suggestion  has  served  to  lend  to  these  feelings  an 
indefinite  continuance  and  to  make  them  worse.  Here 
we  have  a  habit  neurosis,  a  constantly  recurring  mental 
state.  Not  only  is  the  method  of  thinking  at  fault, 
but  also  the  reaction  to  surroundings.  The  patient 
yields  to  every  slight  sensation  of  fatigue  and  to  every 
fleeting  pain.  The  object  of  the  educational  method 
in  neurasthenia  is  to  train  the  patient  to  healthier  habits 
of  thought  and  to  substitute  for  the  morbid  emotional 
complex  a  feeling  of  pleasure  and  of  energy  in  all  the  acts 


PSYCHIC  AND  MOTOR  RE-EDUCATION         253 

and  reactions  of  every-day  life.  The  process  is  naturally 
a. slow  one  analogous  to  all  educational  methods,  but  "as 
use  doth  breed  a  habit  in  a  man,"  so  constant  application 
can  direct  the  mind  into  healthier  channels.  As  an 
athlete  is  compelled  to  go  through  a  certain  method  of 
training  before  his  muscles  become  fit  for  the  competitive 
contest,  or  the  beginner  in  piano  playing  requires  long 
practice  to  arrive  at  any  degree  of  proficiency,  so  the  faulty 
neurasthenic  habit  of  thought  requires  a  long  course  of 
mental  gymnastics  to  transform  it  to  a  normal  mode  of 
activity.  .  This  is  the  secret  of  the  psychic  re-education 
of  neurasthenia  and,  once  this  mental  reconstruction  of 
the  patient  is  established,  recovery  follows  as  a  natural 
consequence. 

How  is  this  psychic  re-education  carried  out  in  these 
severe  functional  nervous  states?  Without  entering  into 
technical  details,  we  may  say  that  the  best  plan  is  to 
attack  the  diseased  condition  from  various  standpoints, 
thus  bringing  a  number  of  forces  to  bear  upon  the  patient. 
In  the  nature  of  things,  this  is  more  effective  than  any 
single  line  of  treatment.  First  we  must  be  sincere  with 
the  patient  and  instruct  him  in  the  nature  of  the  disease 
and  its  individual  symptoms,  and  thus  free  his  mind  from 
any  popular  medical  misconceptions  and  fallacies.  Next, 
the  individual  symptoms  themselves  must  be  suppressed 
by  various  therapeutic  agents  and  corrected  from  this 
explanatory  point  of  view  and  a  healthier  emotional  state 
must  be  substituted  for  the  existing  abnormal  one.  The 
reaction  to  surroundings  should  be  modified  by  an  insist- 
ence on  a  changed  daily  routine  and  finally  over-feeding 
and  isolation  may  be  necessary.  So  we  see  that  the  edu- 


254  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

cational  method  comprises  not  merely  mental  therapeutics, 
but  every  therapeutic  agent  must  be  utilized  to  effect  the 
complete  mental  reconstruction  of  the  patient.  It  is 
really  a  summation  of  stimuli,  the  individual  forces  of 
which  should  harmonize  with  the  most  recent  develop- 
ments in  scientific  medicine. 

Psychic  training  has  its  analogue  in  the  physical  sphere, 
namely  motor  re-education.  As  in  the  functional  neuroses, 
the  psychotherapeutic  action  of  educational  methods  acts 
like  a  real  force  in  reconstructing  the  mental  attitude  of 
the  patient,  so  the  motor  educational  methods  can  har- 
monize muscular  inco-ordination.  It  is  a  training  in 
motility  when  this  motility  acts  in  an  abnormal  manner. 
Before  we  pass  to  this  aspect  of  the  question,  however, 
a  few  words  are  necessary  as  to  the  mechanism  of  co-ordi- 
nated movements. 

We  have  already  had  one  example  of  the  disharmony  of 
muscular  activity  in  the  development  of  habit  spasms. 
The  movements  of  the  body  as  a  whole  or  in  part  are  pro- 
duced by  the  muscles  which  are  attached  to  the  bony 
skeleton.  All  muscular  movement  is  produced  by  the 
contraction  of  individual  muscular  fibers.  These  move- 
ments are  under  the  direct  control  of  the  nervous  system. 
Muscles  are  seldom  or  never  contracted  individually: 
all  muscular  movements  are  actions  of  groups  of  muscles. 
When  we  will  a  muscular  contraction,  the  intended  move- 
ment is  for  a  common  physiological  purpose,  such  as  loco- 
motion, sitting  down,  climbing  stairs,  or  the  carrying  of 
food  to  the  mouth.  A  number  of  muscles  must  be 
thrown  into  activity  in  order  to  produce  these  compli- 
cated movements.  In'  the  healthy,  adult  human  being 


PSYCHIC  AND  MOTOR  RE-EDUCATION         255 

only  harmonious  muscular  movements  take  place.  For 
the  production  of  muscular  activity,  the  nervous  system 
acts  either  as  a  conducting  apparatus,  chiefly  by  means 
of  the  spinal  cord,  or  a  selective  idea  of  a  co-ordinated 
muscular  movement  takes  place  in  the  brain.  This  selec- 
tive idea  is  known  as  "willing"  a  movement.  All  normal 
muscular  activity  is  co-ordinated  or  directed  towards  a 
specific  end.  When  the  conducting  apparatus  in  the  spinal 
cord  is  at  fault,  for  instance  as  in  the  disease  known  as 
locomotor  ataxia,  or  when  the  idea  of  a  muscular  move- 
ment is  lost  or  suppressed,  as  in  hysterical  paralysis,  the 
machinery  of  co-ordinated  movements  may  then  be  said 
to  be  out  of  gear.  The  execution  of  voluntary  movements 
then  becomes  faulty,  ill-balanced,  awkward:  it  cannot  be 
directed  towards  a  definite  end.  Locomotion  is  en- 
tirely lost  or  is  so  disordered  that  it  resembles  the  gait 
of  a  drunken  man  or  of  a  normal  person  attempting  to 
walk  on  the  ice.  Liquids  cannot  be  carried  to  the  mouth 
without  spilling,  while  the  finer  movements  of  the  fingers, 
as  in  writing,  become  impossible.  The  list  might  be 
indefinitely  extended  to  comprise  any  variety  of  motor 
activity  of  which  the  human  adult  is  capable.  Vision 
is  very  important  for  normal  muscular  activity  and  this 
is  why  the  blind  walk  awkwardly  or  letters  are  poorly 
formed  when  we  attempt  to  write  with  the  eyes  closed. 

The  study  of  the  normal  and  abnormal  movements  has 
recently  received  a  strong  impetus  by  the  taking  of  in- 
stantaneous photographs  and  projecting  these  upon  a 
screen,  as  in  biograph  pictures.  The  film  of  course  can 
be  stopped  at  any  desired  point  and  thus  a  complicated 
movement  can  be  studied  at  leisure  in  any  of  its  stages. 


256  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

This  method  has  been  applied  to  the  gait  in  locomotor 
ataxia,  paralysis,  habit  spasms,  and  epileptic  convulsions. 

We  have  seen  that  co-ordinated  muscular  activity  in 
normal  individuals  is  adapted  to  specific,  intended  actions, 
and  these  actions  are  the  result  of  education  and  prac- 
tice. This  is  true  of  only  voluntary  movements  which 
are  under  the  control  of  the  will.  Involuntary  muscular 
movements,  such  as  breathing  and  the  heart-beat,  are 
innervated  by  the  lower  brain  centers  and  therefore  auto- 
matic in  action.  This  is  an  admirable  mechanism,  as 
these  activities  are  necessary  for  the  preservation  and 
continuance  of  life,  and  if  under  voluntary  control  would 
not  only  demand  an  amount  of  conscious  thought  in- 
compatible with  any  other  activity  of  every-day  life,  but 
would  also  cease  during  sleep. 

The  newly  born  infant  cannot  perform  any  co-ordinate 
muscular  movements  It  is  unable  to  walk,  can  carry 
objects  to  the  mouth  only  in  an  awkward  manner,  and 
even  harmonious  movements  of  the  eyeball  are  absent, 
so  that  when  a  young  child  hears  any  unusual  noise,  it 
turns  its  entire  head  in  the  direction  of  the  sound.  Thus 
we  see  how  even  in  the  normal  human  being,  the  co-ordi- 
nation of  ordinary  muscular  movements  has  to  be  learned, 
in  fact  is  educational.  This  is  even  more  true  of  skilled 
actions.  It  is  a  training  of  the  nervous  system,  and  an 
action  like  learning  to  walk,  performed  at  first  with  diffi- 
culty, finally  becomes  purely  automatic.  It  is  unneces- 
sary for  normal  adults  to  think  how  to  walk:  they  can 
perform  other  actions  while  walking  and  there  is  no  need 
to  observe  the  movements  of  the  limbs.  In  the  child,  on 
the  contrary,  learning  to  walk  is  a  distinctly  conscious 


PSYCHIC  AND  MOTOR  RE-EDUCATION         257 

process,  slowly  and  awkwardly  performed.  Distract  this 
child  from  these  conscious  activities,  or  if  he  ceases  to 
observe  his  limbs  for  a  moment,  he  falls.  When  an  adult 
is  acquiring  a  skilled  movement,  like  piano  playing, 
skating,  or  bicycle  riding,  a  new  type  of  muscular  co  ordi- 
nation is  needed.  The  beginner  in  skating  or  in  bicycle 
riding  resembles  the  child  that  is  learning  to  walk.  It  is 
a  conscious  process  and  a  visual  perception  of  all  the  move- 
ments is  necessary.  By  practice,  a  less  and  less  conscious 
effort  is  needed,  and  finally  it  becomes  entirely  automatic. 
Thus  again  we  see  how  the  learning  of  co-ordinated  mus- 
cular activity,  whether  the  ordinary  movements  in  the 
child  or  the  skilled  movements  in  the  adult,  has  a  purely 
physiological  basis,  depending  upon  the  plasticity  of  the 
nerve  substance.  Now  certain  diseases  of  the  nervous 
system  are  associated  with  this  awkward  muscular  activ- 
ity known  as  ataxia,  which  is  in  a  way  a  reversion  to  the 
motor  disharmony  of  the  child.  In  learning  any  skilled 
movements  (and  all  muscular  co-ordination  is  in  the  high- 
est sense  skilled),  we  are  all  inco-ordinate  or  ataxic  at  first. 
Constant  repetition,  however,  makes  the  movements 
less  and  less  awkward,  until  finally  they  are  executed  with 
a  minimum  of  effort  and  with  absolute  accuracy.  This 
is  the  principle  of  motor  re-education,  the  treatment  of 
the  various  types  of  muscular  inco-  ordination  by  system- 
atic and  graduated  exercises. 

These  methods  of  treatment  by  motor  re-education 
are  particularly  applicable  to  such  organic  nervous  dis- 
eases as  locomotor  ataxia  and  the  ataxias  of  childhood, 
to  such  functional  disorders  as  the  various  tics  or  habit 
spasms  and  to  certain  hysterical  disturbances.  In  tabes 


258  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

(locomotor  ataxia)  there  is  a  degeneration  of  certain  por- 
tions of  the  spinal  cord.  One  of  the  most  prominent 
symptoms  of  this  degeneration,  in  fact  the  symptom  from 
which  the  disease  derives  its  name,  is  muscular  inco-ordi- 
nation  or  ataxia.  This  effects  the  arms  and  legs,  more 
particularly  the  latter,  depending,  of  course,  upon  the  por- 
tion of  the  spinal  cord  that  is  diseased.  When  the  arms 
are  involved,  the  finer  skilled  movements  of  the  fingers 
and  hands  become  impossible.  If  the  legs  are  affected, 
locomotion  is  extremely  difficult  and  ill-balanced.  In 
the  educational  treatment  of  tabes,  we  do  not  influence 
the  degenerated  portions  of  the  spinal  cord,  but  we 
merely  train  other  parts  of  the  nervous  system  to  take  on 
those  activities  which  the  diseased  spinal  cord  is  incapable 
of  carrying  out.  The  plan  of  treatment  is  dependent 
upon  the  results  of  the  neurological  examination,  but  the 
motor  exercises  are  carefully  graduated,  extremely  simple 
in  character  at  first  and  gradually  increasing  in  com- 
plexity. Fatigue  must  be  especially  avoided.  After  a 
course  of  treatment,  it  is  surprising  to  see  the  stumbling, 
ill-balanced  ataxic  walking  with  perfect  confidence  and 
steadiness. 

In  some  forms  of  hysteria,  the  patient  suffers  from  a 
peculiar  group  of  symptoms.  He  is  perfectly  able  to 
move  the  legs  when  lying  down,  there  is  no  sign  of  mus- 
cular weakness  or  paralysis,  but  all  attempts  at  walking 
are  unsuccessful.  Here  is  a  purely  functional  disorder 
and  not  an  absolute  loss  of  nerve  tissue  as  in  tabes.  The 
patient  has  lost  or  suppressed  the  mental  images  of  the 
co-ordinated  movements  necessary  for  locomotion.  His 
nervous  system  or  tissue  is  intact;  the  most  careful  ex- 


PSYCHIC  AND  MOTOR  RE-EDUCATION        259 

amination  will  fail  to  reveal  any  organic  lesion  of  the  brain 
or  spinal  cord.  The  object  of  the  educational  treatment 
is  to  substitute  a  new  system  of  the  mental  images  of  loco- 
motion by  carefully  graduated  exercises.  Here  we  are 
dealing  with  motor  plus  psychic  re-education,  as  the  thera- 
peutic action  of  confidence  is  a  strong  factor  in  these 
cases  and  this  confidence  increases  in  power  as  the  nor- 
mal motor  activities  become  established. 

The  various  tics  or  habit  spasms  are  infinite  in  variety, 
as  these  pathological  muscular  movements  may  result 
from  any  of  the  normal  muscular  activities  of  which  the 
body  is  capable.  As  indicated  previously,  these  may 
result  from  reactions  of  defense  or  may  arise  almost  spon- 
taneously in  a  neuropathic  individual.  In  all  these  cases, 
therefore,  the  mental  or  nervous  condition  of  the  patient 
must  be  made  the  subject  of  a  careful  analysis.  The 
educational  treatment  of  tics  is  a  systematized  motor  and 
volitional  discipline.  Its  object  is  not  only  a  training 
of  the  affected  muscles  to  perform  their  normal  functions, 
but  also  an  inhibition  of  abnormal  muscular  movements. 
All  these  can  be  accomplished  by  appropriate  exercises. 


CHAPTER  Xin 

THE  GENERAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  PSYCHOTHERAPY 

THE  chief  object  of  this  volume  is  to  present  to  the 
reader  an  epitome  of  one  of  the  most  important  tenden- 
cies in  modern  medicine  —  namely,  the  treatment  of 
certain  functional  nervous  disorders  by  means  of  sug- 
gestion. Technically,  this  is  known  as  psychotherapy. 
As  a  great  deal  on  the  subject  had  been  scattered  through 
the  chapters  of  this  book,  it  seemed  desirable  to  unify 
the  various  statements  and  to  present  a  short  account 
of  the  general  principles  of  psychotherapy.  While  psycho- 
therapy is  by  no  means  a  new  method  of  treatment,  but 
has  been  employed  by  physicians  in  one  form  or  another 
from  the  earliest  dawn  of  medicine,  yet  its  scientific  and 
rational  application  has  been  the  work  of  only  recent 
years.  Formerly  much  empiricism  prevailed  in  this 
field,  at  least  so  long  as  psychology  was  looked  upon  as 
one  of  the  occult  sciences  and  a  branch  of  a  more  or 
less  unpractical  metaphysics.  But  with  the  advent  of 
physiological  psychology,  of  sound  experiment  instead  of 
hazy  generalizations,  with  the  modern  advances  in  the 
study  of  hysteria  and  the  various  aspects  of  the  dissocia- 
tions of  consciousness,  it  was  soon  perceived  that  a  ra- 
tional psychic  treatment  was  indicated  in  purely  psychic 
disorders.  Therefore  all  the  diagnostic  criteria  of  mod- 
em neurology  and  psychiatry  were  brought  to  bear  upon 

260 


GENERAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  PSYCHOTHERAPY      261 

the  study  of  functional  nervous  disorders,  and  the  re- 
sult has  been  not  only  new  and  sound  conceptions,  but 
rational  psychologic  indications  for  treatment. 

In  order  to  free  the  reader's  mind  from  any  a  priori 
misconceptions,  it  will  be  well  to  state  in  the  beginning, 
that  while  psychotherapy  in  some  form  or  another  is  the 
rational  treatment  for  functional  nervous  disorders,  yet 
it  is  not  indicated  in  all,  neither  are  all  functional  dis- 
orders amenable  to  psychotherapy.  It  is  rather  in  the 
severe  cases  which  do  not  yield  to  ordinary  physical 
methods  and  in  certain  types  of  pure  dissociations  of  con- 
sciousness that  psychotherapeutic  treatment  is  indicated. 
We  cannot  reiterate  too  frequently  that  a  thorough  neuro- 
logical, psychiatric,  or  general  medical  examination  is 
absolutely  necessary  before  the  institution  of  any  form  of 
psychic  treatment,  not  only  to  rule  out  any  organic  disease 
or  distinctly  organic  complications  of  a  seemingly  pure 
functional  disorder,  but  also  to  obtain  an  intelligent  com- 
prehension of  the  case.  Only  in  this  way  can  grave  errors 
be  averted  and  the  patient  saved  much  unnecessary  loss 
of  time  if  other  lines  of  treatment  are  indicated.  For 
instance,  in  one  case  of  a  middle-aged  man,  there  was  a 
complaint  of  some  vague  gastric  disorder  in  association 
with  ill-defined  neurasthenic  symptoms.  A  chemical 
examination  of  the  stomach  contents  revealed  a  begin- 
ning cancer  of  the  stomach.  Immediate  operation  was 
advised,  and  while  it  is  yet  too  early  to  ascertain  a  definite 
outcome,  yet  the  chances  of  cure  are  much  greater  than  if 
the  patient's  valuable  time  had  been  wasted  by  a  wholly 
ineffectual  psychic  treatment.  Another  case  will  show 
an  exactly  opposite  state  of  affairs.  The  patient  was  a 


262  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

young  man  who  for  years  had  been  treated  for  an 
organic  disease  of  the  stomach,  by  means  of  drugs  and 
special  diet.  He  did  not  improve,  however,  and  finally  a 
careful  neurological  examination  revealed  that  the  symp- 
toms referable  to  the  stomach  were  not  only  functional 
in  nature,  but  that  these  symptoms  were  only  a  portion 
of  a  severe  functional  nervous  disease.  In  fact  the  pa- 
tient was  a  sufferer  from  hysteria.  Careful  psychic 
treatment  directed  towards  hysteria  brought  about  a 
disappearance  of  the  gastric  symptoms  and  finally  a  cure. 
The  above  are  merely  two  cases  out  of  many  that  could 
be  cited. 

Pyschotherapeutic  methods  vary,  the  object  of  some 
is  purely  therapeutic,  of  others  distinctly  analytical,  to 
penetrate  into  the  origin  of  certain  disturbances  and  lay 
bare  the  essential  emotional  complex.  Suggestions  may 
be  given  in  the  waking,  half- waking,  or  hypnotic  state; 
psychic  or  motor  re-education  may  be  necessary  in  dis- 
eases of  long  duration,  where  habits  of  thought  or  of 
activity  have  become  distinctly  abnormal.  Isolation  is 
indicated  in  certain  hysterical  states,  while  persuasion  or 
a  rational,  sincere  explanation  will  often  appeal  to  the 
more  intelligent  class  of  patients.  Ignoring  and  purpose- 
ful neglect  are  sometimes  of  value  in  the  hysteria  of  chil- 
dren. The  principle  of  reserve  energy  *  has  opened  up 
new  vistas  in  psychotherapy.  To  all  of  these,  of  course, 
treatment  by  physical  agents  is  frequently  necessary  — 
rest,  baths,  electricity,  massage,  diet,  drugs.  Nor  must 

1  William  James,  "  The  Energies  of  Men,"  Philosophical  Review, 
1907.  Boris  Sidis,  "  Studies  in  Psychopathology,"  Boston  Medical  and 
Surgical  Journal,  March  14  to  April  u,  1907. 


GENERAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  PSYCHOTHERAPY     263 

we  forget  one  factor  of  the  highest  importance,  —  the  in- 
dividuality of  the  physician. 

It  would  exceed  the  scope  and  purpose  of  this  book  to 
discuss  the  above  methods  in  detail,  as  most  of  these  are 
not  only  far  too  technical  to  admit  of  intelligent  compre- 
hension by  the  lay  reader,  but  all  presuppose  a  thorough 
medical  examination.  A  rational  psychotherapy  can  only 
be  developed  on  the  basis  of  a  rational  psychopathology. 

The  nature  and  value  of  hypnosis  have  already  been 
discussed.  In  many  cases,  however,  hypnosis  is  unneces- 
sary; in  fact,  it  is  only  used  when  other  lines  of  treat- 
ment fail.  Frequently  in  the  psychoneuroses,  a  rational 
explanation  and  analysis  of  the  patient's  condition 
will  go  far  toward  relieving  many  distressing  symptoms, 
especially  if  the  patient,  as  is  too  frequently  the  case, 
has  been  the  victim  of  some  popular  medical  misconcep- 
tion or  superstition.  Recently  the  application  of  these 
pyschotherapeutic  conversations  in  the  management  and 
treatment  of  certain  paranoic  states,  or  in  limited  types 
of  delusion  formation,  has  attracted  considerable  notice. 
Of  course,  for  a  sound,  psychotherapeutic  treatment,  the 
psychogenesis  of  these  states  must  be  carefully  analyzed, 
and  this  presupposes  a  knowledge  of  mental  diseases 
that  is  not  possessed  by  any  of  the  pseudo-scientific 
cults  of  mental  healing.  For  the  principles  of  psychic 
re-education,  the  reader  is  referred  to  two  papers  by  Prince 
and  Coriat.1  The  results  in  this  series  were  most  gratify- 

1  Morton  Prince  and  Isador  Coriat,  "  The  Educational  Treatment  of 
the  Psycho-Neuroses,"  Journal  Abnormal  Psychology,  vol.  ii,  No.  4, 
October-November,  1907.  Isador  H.  Coriat,  "  Some  Further  Studies 
on  Nocturnal  Paralysis,"  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  De- 
cember 5,  1907. 


264  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

ing  considering  that  the  cases  were  of  years'  duration  and 
had  resisted  all  other  methods  of  treatment.  Here  were 
treated  and  cured  convulsive  attacks  of  purely  functional 
origin,  the  peculiar  types,  of  nocturnal  paralysis,  nocturnal 
enuresis,  psychasthenic  states,  and  functional  gastric  dis- 
orders. Of  course,  in  some  of  these  cases  psychic  treat- 
ment was  combined  with  physiological  hygiene,  but  the 
general  principles  of  treatment  were  carried  along  the 
line  of  the  correction  of  faulty  habits  of  thought,  instruc- 
tion of  the  patient  into  the  nature  of  his  disease,  and  the 
suppression  of  individual  symptoms  by  various  suggest- 
ive measures. 

Motor  re-education  has  been  of  value  in  the  various 
tics  and  habit  spasms  of  adult  life  and  childhood.  These 
conditions  are  sometimes  mistaken  for  chorea,  but  are 
really  functional  motor  disturbances,  in  many  cases  the 
result  of  a  faulty  motor  education.  Isolation  methods 
have  been  of  great  value,  particularly  in  hysteria  or  neuras- 
thenia, and  recently  Dubois  of  Berne  has  written  a  pop- 
ular book  on  the  purely  psychic  treatment  of  certain 
psychoneu  roses.1 

A  question  of  great  importance  now  arises  —  what 
particular  form  of  psychic  treatment  shall  be  used?  To 
this  we  reply  —  that  the  method  of  treatment  is  absolutely 
dependent  on  the  results  of  the  medical  examination, 
particularly,  the  origin  and  nature  of  the  particular  ner- 
vous disease.  Also,  it  is  frequently  the  case,  that  even  in 

1  L.  F.  Barker,  "  Some  Experience  with  the  Simpler  Methods  of 
Psychotherapy  and  Re-education,"  American  Journal  0}  the  Medical 
Sciences,  October,  1906.  J.  Camus  and  P.  Pagniez,  Isolement  et 
Psychothtrapie,  Paris,  1904.  Paul  Dubois,  The  Psychic  Treatment 
of  Nervous  Disorders,  1905. 


GENERAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  PSYCHOTHERAPY     26$ 

purely  functional  disorders,  medical  treatment  is  neces- 
sary in  combination  with  psychotherapy,  and  sometimes, 
in  a  functional  disorder,  physical  therapy  alone  is  indi- 
cated. The  outline  of  the  treatment,  like  the  diagnosis 
of  the  condition,  should  be  in  the  hands  of  a  competent 
physician. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

FEAR  AND  WORRY 

FEAR  is  one  of  our  most  elemental  and  primitive  emo- 
tions. Indeed  the  biologist  assures  us  that  along  with 
Surprise  it  was  the  first  to  be  developed,  as  the  feeling  of 
the  Ludicrous  was  the  last.  Fear  is  common  to  all  forms 
of  animal  existence,  even  the  lowest.  Darwin  says  that 
the  earth-worm  knows  fear  and  darts  into  its  burrow  like 
a  rabbit  when  alarmed.  This  universality  of  fear  has 
come  about  through  the  working  of  the  law  of  natural 
selection  which  prescribes  that  only  those  creatures  sur- 
vive that  best  adjust  themselves  to  their  environment. 
Without  fear  no  organism  could  survive,  for  no  organism 
could  relate  itself  to  the  hostile  forces  in  its  environment. 
The  animal  that  feared  rightly  increased  its  chances  of 
survival,  whereas  the  animal  that  feared  wrongly  weak- 
ened the  forces  that  made  for  self-preservation.  Within 
limits,  then,  fear  as  a  primary  instinct  has  been  and  is 
eminently  useful.  It  is  the  cry  of  alarm  raised  by  the 
senses  which  act  as  the  guardians  of  the  body;  and  at  the 
signal,  in  virtue  of  the  nervous  automatism,  the  organism 
is  put  in  a  position  of  defense.  Yet  this  is  only  half  the 
truth.  If  it  is  an  advantage  to  the  animal  organism, 
it  is  also  a  disadvantage.  For  example,  it  has  been 
observed  that  many  birds,  though  scarcely  wounded  by 
small  shot,  fall  to  the  ground  as  though  struck  by  light- 

366 


FEAR  AND  WORRY  267 

ning,  panting,  with  wide-open  eyes.  Then  again  it  often 
happens  that  the  fear  which  prompts  efforts  to  escape 
a  threatened  danger  turns  out  to  fail  of  its  purpose.  We 
know  also  that  in  human  life  fear,  beyond  a  certain  point, 
becomes  an  intolerable  curse.  It  excites  to  activity,  and 
at  the  same  time  tends  to  paralyze  this  very  activity.  At 
best,  it  would  appear  to  be  a  clumsy  device  of  Nature  to 
preserve  the  species. 

Man  inherits  fear  from  his  sub-human  ancestry.  The 
new-born  babe  fears.  Every  mother  and  every  nurse 
knows  the  instinctive  fear  of  falling  shown  by  the  infant 
on  her  knee.  In  this  tendency  and  in  the  babe's  power 
of  clutch,  the  biologist  sees  a  survival  of  the  time  when  man 
was  an  arboreal  animal  and  when  he  put  his  young  to  sleep 
on  the  branches  of  trees  or  on  ledges  of  rock.  "The 
fear,"  says  Mosso,  "which  children  have  of  dogs  and  cats, 
before  they  have  learnt  why  they  are  to  be  feared,  is  a 
consequence  of  heredity;  even  later,  when  they  have 
gained  some  experience,  they  are  overcome  with  fear  at 
the  sight  of  sucking  pups  or  kittens,  which  would  be 
ridiculous  if  it  were  not  an  innate  aversion."  *  We  are 
born,  then,  to  a  heritage  of  fear.  Some  dreads  we  out- 
grow; to  others  we  are  in  lifelong  bondage.  Fear  in 
man  has  a  wider  field  than  in  the  animal,  just  as  man's 
nature  is  higher  and  more  complicated  than  the  animal's. 
Man  is  a  being  of  "such  large  discourse,  looking  before 
and  after,"  and  to  the  fears  of  the  sense  he  adds  those 
of  conscience  and  imagination.  It  is  true  that  optimistic 
voices  would  reassure  us  with  the  glad  news  that  science 
is  gradually  abolishing  fears  and  that  before  its  steady 

1  Fear  (English  translation),  p.  231. 


268  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

advance  the  dark  shadows  that  scare  the  soul  will  flee 
away.  But  such  a  boast  is  of  the  vainest.  Science  does 
not  change  the  amount  of  fear;  she  but  redistributes  it. 
The  fears  of  superstition  and  ignorance  vanish  before 
her  presence,  only  however  to  be  replaced  by  those  of 
truth  and  knowledge.  If  we  fear  ghosts  and  demons 
less,  we  fear  microbes  and  bacteria  more.  Witches  and 
warlocks  no  longer  affright  us,  but  tuberculosis  and 
cancer  cannot  be  laughed  away.  And  if  science  can  do 
something  to  combat  pathological  fears,  she  has  no  healing 
word  for  the  dreads  that  originate  in  the  moral  and  spirit- 
ual nature,  the  self-fear  that  debases  life,  the  specter  of 
guilt  that  will  not  down. 

Who  can  classify  the  fears  of  man  or  woman?  They 
are  as  multitudinous  as  are  their  desires.  Perhaps  what 
a  woman  fears  most  is  wrinkles  and  so  she  has  resource 
to  cosmetics,  and  rouge  pots  .and  "beauty-doctors"  in 
vain  attempts  to  ward  off  the  enemy,  forgetting  the  hy- 
giene of  the  soul  that  alone  makes  winsome  the  "human 
face  divine."  The  professional  man  or  the  business  man 
fears  failure.  Now  up  to  a  certain  point  this  fear  is  a 
good;  it  is  an  incentive  to  action.  Beyond  this  point  it 
is  an  evil  and  works  only  harm.  So,  too,  with  the  public 
speaker.  He  fears  his  hearers  and  so  is  nervous;  only 
thus  does  he  bond  them  to  his  will.  But  let  him  be  over- 
nervous,  the  spell  is  broken,  his  speech  evokes  pity,  or 
contempt,  and  his  effort  is  a  failure.  Hence  the  man  of 
business  or  of  art  should  not  let  his  fears  conquer  his 
judgment;  he  must  by  self-discipline  turn  them  into  a 
steadying  and  solemnizing  influence  which  may  act  as  a 
re-enforcement  to  his  active  powers.  Men  are  bound  to 


FEAR  AND  WORRY  269 

fear,  but  the  fear  should  stimulate,  not  enslave.  It  is 
significant  that,  as  Starbuck  has  shown,  fear  as  a  motive 
in  conversion  is  fifteen  times  as  great  as  hope.  It  would 
seem,  then,  that  we  must  distinguish  between  fears  that 
are  normal  and  fears  that  are  abnormal.  Normal  fears, 
that  is,  fears  which  are  common  to  all  healthy  minds,  may 
and  often  do  become  abnormal,  and  are  then  symptomatic 
of  a  disordered  nervous  state.  But  there  are  also  fears 
which  have  no  counterpart  in  healthy  minds.  Where 
the  line  is  to  be  drawn  between  normal  and  abnormal 
dreads,  who  can  say? 

Stanley  Hall  in  his  remarkable  "Study  of  Fears" 
wisely  remarks :  "  There  is  no  one  without  fear,  and  those 
few  who  so  emphatically  disclaim  all  fear,  and  the  psy- 
chologists who  tabulate  the  percentage  of  fearless  people, 
are  thinking  of  shock  or  panic  or  acute  fright,  or  special 
physical  dread,  but  not  of  the  subtler  forms,  like  fear  of 
God,  of  dishonor,  failure  of  their  highest  purposes,  for 
themselves  or  others.  Not  only  does  everyone  fear,  but 
all  should  fear.  The  pedagogic  problem  is  not  to  elim- 
inate fear,  but  to  gauge  it  to  the  power  of  proper  reac- 
tion. Fears  that  paralyze  some  brains  are  a  good  tonic 
for  others.  In  some  form  and  degree,  all  need  it  always. 
.  .  .  Without  the  fear  apparatus  in  us,  what  a  wealth  of 
motive  would  be  lost!  Aristotle's  conception  of  educa- 
tion, as  learning  to  fear  in  due  proportion  those  things 
worthy  of  being  feared,  would  not  serve  badly  as  a  defin- 
itive also  of  courage."  *  Men  are  bound  to  fear,  but  they 
should  not  merely  fear.  The  good  man  in  the  presence 
of  a  moral  temptation  is  afraid  and  by  his  fear  wins  the 

1  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  vol.  viii,  p.  242. 


270  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

victory;  the  fool,  not  knowing  that  there  is  anything  to 
fear,  falls  struck  through  with  a  dart.  To  enumerate 
the  fears  that  afflict  otherwise  healthy  minds  would  be  a 
tedious  task.  Fear  of  lightning  is  said  to  be  the  most 
common,  yet  its  groundless  character  is  proved  by  the 
insignificant  percentage  of  deaths  caused  by  lightning. 
Fear  of  darkness  is  the  standing  misery  of  childhood, 
especially  of  imaginative  and  delicately  organized  child- 
hood. A  well-known  novelist  describes  the  sufferings 
from  this  cause  of  her  hero's  boyhood.  "Every  night 
brought  its  own  distinct  horror.  The  black  dormitory 
was  full  of  murderous  visions  that  he  dared  not  look 
upon.  Only  the  blanket  lay  between  him  and  the  wolves, 
the  blood-stained  daggers  held  by  a  severed  hand  in  the 
air,  the  bat-like  old  women  measuring  drops  of  poison 
into  a  cup.  Awful  indeed  is  the  war  of  a  child  with  dark- 
ness, when  imagination  is  at  its  height,  and  reason  is 
scarcely  born  in  him.  .  .  .  Even  now,  as  he  harked  back 
to  this  period,  he  could  not  recall  it  without  a  shudder. 
'Childhood  a  happy  time!  What  do  they  mean  who  say 
so?"'1 

Some  fears  persist  through  youth  into  adult  life.  They 
seem  to  root  themselves  so  deeply  in  the  memory  that 
even  the  greatest  vicissitudes,  the  most  revolutionary 
changes  in  experience,  leave  them  untouched.  "Every 
ugly  thing  told  to  the  child,  every  shock,  every  fright  given 
him,  will  remain  like  minute  splinters  in  the  flesh,  to 
torture  him  all  his  life  long.  An  old  soldier,  when  I  asked 
what  his  greatest  fears  had  been,  answered  me  thus:  'I 
have  only  had  one,  but  it  pursues  me  still.  I  am  nearly 

'  M.  E.  Coleridge:  The  Fiery  Dawn,  p.  77. 


FEAR  AND  WORRY  271 

seventy  years  old,  I  have  looked  death  in  the  face  I  do 
not  know  how  many  times,  I  have  never  lost  heart  in  any 
danger,  but  when  I  pass  a  little  old  church  in  the  shades  of 
the  forest,  or  a  deserted  chapel  in  the  mountains,  I  always 
remember  a  neglected  oratory  in  my  native  village,  and 
I  shiver  and  look  around,  as  though  seeking  the  corpse 
of  a  murdered  man  which  I  once  saw  carried  into  it  when 
a  child,  and  with  which  an  old  servant  wanted  to  shut 
me  up  to  make  me  good.'"1 

How  may  this  fear  of  the  dark  be  cured  or  at  least 
mitigated  ?  Not  certainly  by  coercion  or  scolding.  Such 
measures  only  aggravate  the  trouble.  First  of  all,  the 
child  should  not  be  allowed  to  hear  or  to  read  stories  or 
legends  of  an  exciting  character.  All  morbidity  of  imagi- 
nation should  be  checked  and  the  mind  strengthened 
and  developed  by  simple,  practical,  scientific  reading. 
With  the  growth  and  maturing  of  the  body  many  of  these 
childish  fears  gradually  disappear.  Hence  the  need  for 
open-air  exercise,  nutritious  food,  and  the  avoidance  of 
an  over-stimulation  of  the  brain  by  too  much  mental 
work.  Finally,  a  few  reassuring  suggestions  adminis- 
tered in  a  firm  voice  to  the  child  when  he  is  in  a  half- 
waking,  half-sleeping  state,  will  be  found  to  be  of  the 
greatest  value.  Happily  the  child-mind  is  most  amen- 
able to  suggestion. 

A  very  wide- spread  fear,  especially  in  adolescence,  is 
fear  of  disease.  This  secret  and  intense  dread  often 
causes  nervous  disorders  so  that,  as  Stanley  Hall  says,  if 
the  mind  can  cure  the  diseases  it  can  make  in  adolescence, 
it  can  do  much.  Perhaps  the  greatest  cause  of  this  fear 

1  Mosso,  Fear,  p.   226. 


272  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

is  too  much  attention  to  passing  sensations.  A  slight 
palpitation  of  the  heart  is  so  magnified  by  attention  being 
fixed  on  it  that  the  subject  begins  to  fear  he  is  developing 
angina  pectoris.  A  student  has,  perhaps,  overworked  his 
brain,  or  has,  from  one  cause  or  another,  fallen  into  a 
neurasthenic  state,  with  its  concomitant  depression,  lack 
of  volitional  power,  psychic  pains  in  the  head  and  so 
forth,  and  becomes  seized  with  the  idea  that  he  is  about 
to  lose  his  reason.  This  dread,  of  course,  only  deepens 
his  morbidity,  though  observation  goes  to  prove  that  the 
dread  is  rarely  justified.  The  sufferer  should  reassure 
himself  by  the  reflection  that  this,  like  all  other  morbid 
fears,  is  the  symptom  merely  of  a  nervous  state,  is  mental 
in  character  and  can  therefore  be  suppressed  by  the 
manipulation  of  thought.  The  rule,  then,  is:  Morbid 
thoughts  can  be  driven  out  only  by  other  and  healthy  ones. 
Substitute  for  the  fear  the  thought  of  some  duty  not  yet 
achieved,  or  the  thought  of  the  Divine  presence  which  is 
near  us  alike  in  our  going  out  and  in  our  coming  in. 
Cultivate  that  condition  of  mind  which,  conscious  of 
God's  fatherly  regard,  feels  safe  in  His  hands,  and  is 
willing  to  meet  good  or  evil  as  He  wills  it.  In  a  word, 
re-educate  yourself,  morally  and  spiritually.  Summon 
the  forces  of  your  nature  against  this  debasing  fear,  and 
through  prayer,  through  obedience  to  law  moral  and 
law  physiological,  through  concentration  on  some  enter- 
prise that  carries  you  beyond  your  petty  interests,  win 
back  the  gift  of  self-control  which  is  the  secret  of  every 
life  worth  living. 

Of  all  the  fears  that  visit  middle  age,  one  of  the  most 
frequently  encountered   is  fear  of  poverty.    There  are 


FEAR  AND  WORRY.  273 

amiable  writers  who  spend  much  ink  in  proving  that  pov- 
erty is  no  evil.  Indeed,  if  we  are  to  believe  these  optimis- 
tic souls,  poverty  so  far  from  being  an  ill  to  be  avoided 
is  rather  a  blessing  to  be  prized.  There  is  a  grain  of  truth 
at  the  bottom  of  their  contention.  And  this  grain  is 
that  there  arc  evils  worse  than  poverty.  The  woman 
who  sells  her  soul  for  diamonds  and  thereby  places  dis- 
honorable ease  above  honorable  poverty,  commits,  it  is 
agreed,  both  a  sin  and  a  blunder.  Yet  if  poverty,  as 
Juvenal  says,  makes  us  ridiculous,  if  it  means  dependence, 
loss  of  friendship,  forfeiture  of  established  position, 
physical  discomfort,  suppression  of  intellectual  desires, 
frustration  of  worthy  ambitions,  lack  of  self-respect  and 
the  respect  of  one's  neighbors  —  and  poverty  beyond  a 
certain  point  means  all  this  —  then  it  must  be  esteemed 
an  evil,  though  we  cannot  agree  with  Christian  Science 
in  regarding  it  as  a  moral  offense.  A  whiff  of  Dr. 
Samuel  Johnson's  robust  common-sense  suffices  to  dissi- 
pate the  sophistries  of  those  who  think  otherwise:  "Sir,  all 
the  arguments  which  are  brought  to  represent  poverty  as 
no  evil  show  it  to  be  evidently  a  great  evil.  You  never 
find  people  laboring  to  convince  you  that  you  may  live 
very  happily  upon  a  plentiful  fortune."  Let  it  be  granted, 
then,  that  in  the  hierarchy  of  mischiefs  that  vex  human- 
ity, poverty  has  a  place,  though  the  place  is  not  so  high 
as  many  think,  what  are  we  to  do?  Are  we  to  let  this 
fact  breed  a  morbid  fear  which  will  curse  our  lives,  make 
hard  the  heart,  shut  our  ears  to  the  cry  of  distress,  and 
degrade  the  whole  man  into  a  self-centered,  grasping 
money-grubber?  Then  shall  we  become  poor  indeed. 
That  the  fear  is  often  the  mark  of  an  unhealthy  mind 


274  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

cannot  be  questioned.  Said  a  very  intelligent  man  to 
the  writer:  "I  am  haunted  with  the  fear  that  I  will  end 
my  days  in  the  poor-house.  The  thought  fills  me  with 
an  unutterable  depression,  and  makes  work  impossible." 
And  yet  the  man  who  so  spoke  had  over  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  invested  in  "gilt-edged  securities."  A 
healthy  fear  of  indigence  will  lead  to  prudence,  industry, 
thrift,  to  such  measures  as  will  secure  one's  personal 
independence.  Having  done  honest  work,  making  the 
while  such  provision  as  is  possible  for  old  age  or  sickness 
or  for  those  dependent  upon  us,  let  us  in  faith  leave 
the  rest  to  Providence  before  whom  a  sparrow's  fall  is 
not  without  regard,  and  let  us  comfort  ourselves  with 
the  witness  of  ancient  piety:  "I  once  was  young  and  now 
am  old;  and  never  yet  have  I  seen  the  righteous  forsaken 
or  his  seed  begging  bread." 

There  is  one  fear  which  is  absolutely  universal:  it  is 
the  fear  of  death.  In  the  strict  sense,  one  must  be 
human  in  order  to  feel  it.  Originating  as  a  blind  instinct 
unconscious  of  its  end  in  our  animal  ancestry,  it  has  deep- 
ened and  widened  with  the  growth  of  mind  and  imagina- 
tion until  to-day  it  seems  the  master  evil  of  the  world. 
The  animal  knows  pain  and  fears  it:  man,  alone  able  to 
project  himself  into  the  future,  knows  the  deep  mystery  of 
death,  from  which  he  draws  back,  but  into  which  he  must 
pass.  Around  this  mystery  have  gathered  the  supersti- 
tious fears  of  ages  bred  of  an  undisciplined  imagination, 
and  even  Christian  theology  cannot  be  acquitted  of  adding 
the  spiritual  pangs  with  which  generations  have  gone 
down  into  the  grave.  Sad  is  the  reflection  that  there  are 
millions  obsessed  with  an  intense  and  secret  fear  of  death 


FEAR  AND  WORRY  275 

which  takes  the  zest  out  of  existence,  and  makes  the 
heavens  gray.  They  cannot  take  hold  of  life  with  both 
hands,  for  the  fear  of  death  inhibits  them. 

Now  when  we  analyze  this  fear,  we  find  that  it  consists 
of  several  elements,  (i)  The  instinctive  or  animal 
shrinking  from  death.  This  in  a  certain  measure  is  nor- 
mal; without  it  the  race  would  soon  disappear.  It  is  a 
mark  of  our  animal  nature,  and  as  such  is  necessary  for 
the  preservation  of  the  individual.  As  animals,  then, 
we  rightly  shrink  from  dissolution;  but  as  human  beings, 
called  to  organize  our  life  on  a  moral  basis,  it  is  our  pre- 
rogative to  subordinate  this  fear  to  ethical  ends.  And 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  we  know  that  mighty  as  is  this  organic 
instinct,  "there  is  no  passion,"  as  Lord  Bacon  remarks, 
"in  the  mind  of  man  so  weak  but  it  mates  and  masters 
the  fear  of  death;  and  therefore  death  is  no  such  terrible 
enemy  when  a  man  hath  so  many  attendants  about  him 
that  can  win  the  combat  for  him."  *  (2)  Associated  with 
this  instinctive  repugnance  is  horror  at  the  physical  ac- 
companiments of  death.  The  closed  eyes,  the  stilled 
heart,  the  rigid  form,  and  then  the  gloomy  pageant  of 
the  funeral,  the  burial  in  the  pent-up  prison  of  the  grave, 
the  slow  decay  of  the  body,  "the  changes  wrought  on 
form  and  face"  —all  these  lay  hold  of  the  imagination 
and  fill  it  at  times  with  unutterable  misery.  And  yet  a 
little  reflection  shows  that  we  are  here  simply  the  victims 
of  an  illusion.  We  imagine  ourselves  undergoing  these 
experiences  which  exist,  however,  only  for  the  living. 
"  Nothing,  if  we  truly  realize  it,  is  less  real  than  the  grave. 
We  should  be  no  more  concerned  with  the  after  fate  of 

1  Essay,  Of  Death. 


276  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

our  discarded  bodies  than  with  that  of  the  hair  which 
the  hair-cutter  has  cut  off.  The  sooner  they  are  resolved 
into  their  primitive  elements  the  better.  The  imagina- 
tion should  never  be  suffered  to  dwell  upon  their  decay."  l 
(3)  Fear  of  pain  in  the  hour  of  death.  We  speak  of 
the  "last  agony."  And  the  phrase  has  helped  to  per- 
petuate the  idea  that  apart  from  the  symptoms  of  a  given 
disease,  there  is  some  mysterious  pain  in  the  act  of  dying. 
But  as  a  normal  and  natural  event,  our  end  is  probably 
as  painless  as  our  beginning.  Medical  science  assures 
us  that  no  special  misery  is  felt  by  the  dying.  Nature 
administers  her  own  anaesthetic  and  the  end  is,  as  a  rule, 
peace.  Professor  Osier  in  his  Ingersoll  lecture  on  "Im- 
mortality" says:  "I  have  careful  records  of  about  five 
hundred  death-beds,  studied  particularly  with  reference 
to  the  modes  of  death,  and  the  sensations  of  the  dying. 
The  latter  alone  concern  us  here.  Ninety  suffered  bodily 
pain  or  distress  of  one  sort  or  another."  Here  it  will  be 
noted  that  though  one  sixth  or  so  of  the  observed  cases 
suffered  physical  pain,  this  pain  was  not  connected  with 
the  act  of  dying  but  with  the  disease  which  ended  in 
death.  Another  distinguished  student  of  medicine  writes: 
"I  would  have  the  reader  take  the  word  of  one  who  has 
witnessed  many  and  various  deaths  that  the  term  'death- 
agony'  does  not  correspond  to  any  fact  The  immediate 
cause  of  death,  in  all  but  very  exceptional  cases,  such  as 
accident,  is  the  poisoning  of  the  nervous  centers  by  car- 
bonic gas,  which  accumulates  in  the  blood  owing  to  the 
failure  of  the  arrangements  for  its  removal.  Normal 
death,  if  the  phrase  be  permitted,  is  a  painless  occurrence, 

1  Lecky,  The  Map  of  Life,  pp.  350,  351. 


FEAR  AND  WORRY  277 

usually  preceded  by  a  gradual  loss  of  consciousness,  en- 
tailing no  more  suffering  than  going  to  sleep,  which  it 
most  closely  resembles,  literally  as  well  as  poetically."  * 

The  truth  is  that  unworthy  fear  of  death  is  banished 
when  we  sink  deep  into  our  minds  the  thought  that  death 
is  as  much  a  part  of  the  divine  order  of  the  world  as  life, 
and  that  therefore  for  all  God's  creatures  it  means  not 
evil  but  good.  The  approach  of  the  end  may  work  grief 
and  pain  in  the  beholders,  but  to  the  dying,  apart  from 
accident  or  other  abnormal  forms  of  death,  it  is  received 
not  with  resentment  but  with  acquiescence  and  in  the 
majority  of  instances  with  relief.  We  do  not  dislike 
the  interruption  of  consciousness  which  we  call  sleep. 
No  more  will  we  resent  that  deeper  interruption  which 
we  call  death.  Until  our  hour  comes,  faith  in  the  Divine 
goodness,  combined  with  an  active  love  of  service  to  our 
fellowmen,  with  a  sinking  of  our  own  petty  personality 
in  the  interests  of  the  larger  world  to  which  we  belong, 
will  slowly  but  surely  emancipate  us  from  this  as  from  all 
other  degrading  fears.  He  who  knows  how  to  live  will 
know  how  to  die. 

There  is  a  type  of  fear  which  may  take  hold  even  of 
the  healthy  mind,  though  it  is  often  also  the  sign  of  a 
pathological  state  of  the  nervous  system.  It  is  the  type 
to  which  the  term  "Worry"  is  applied.  It  is  almost 
unnecessary  to  describe  it:  the  futile  regret  over  past 
mistakes,  past  follies  and  past  sins,  the  miserable  fore- 
casting of  the  future,  the  constantly  bearing  with  us,  not 
only  the  real  sorrows  of  the  present  but  the  imaginary 
sorrows  of  what  might  have  been  or  what  may  yet  be. 
These  are  the  cursed  forces  that  lay  hold  upon  the  soul, 
1  Saleeby,  Worry,  pp.  250,  351. 


278  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

shake  it  to  its  center,  while  the  cross  currents  of  thought 
are  flowing  to  and  fro  without  aim  and  without  an  end, 
and  life  threatens  "to  grow  into  one  tissue  of  impossibil- 
ities." "Worry,"  says  Dr.  Beard,1  "is  the  one  great 
shortener  of  life  under  civilization;  and  of  all  forms  of 
worry  the  financial  is  the  most  frequent  and  for  ordinary 
minds  the  most  distressing.  Merchants  now  make, 
always  have  made,  and  probably  always  will  make,  most 
of  the  money  of  the  world;  but  business  is  attended  with 
so  much  risk  and  uncertainty  and  consequent  anxiety 
that  merchants  die  sooner  than  physicians  and  lawyers." 
The  philosophers  would  comfort  us  with  the  reflection 
that  to  worry  is  the  sole  prerogative  of  man.  The  animal 
does  not  worry.  Shelley  envies  the  skylark  his  power 
of  giving  himself  up  to  the  joy  of  the  moment  and  contrasts 
therewith  his  own  faculty  of  sorrow: 

"  We  look  before  and  after 

And  pine  for  what  is  not, 
And  our  sincerest  laughter 
With  some  pain  is  fraught."  * 

This  power  to  look  before  and  after  is  the  expression  of 
man's  self-consciousness  of  his  ability  to  identify  himself 
under  all  the  changes  of  the  past,  present,  and  future. 
As  a  man  rises  in  the  scale  of  personality,  he  is  the  more 
prone  to  live  in  the  past  and  in  the  future;  to  be  content 
with  the  present  alone  is  the  mark  of  the  animal  mind. 
Thus  worry  is  the  shadow  cast  by  man's  moral  and  intel- 
lectual greatness  and,  as  Pascal  says,  "the  grandeur  of 
man  is  also  his  misery."  Important  as  is  this  reflection, 
it  carries  us  but  a  little  way,  for  the  insistent  question  is, 

1  American  Nervousness,  p.  202.  *  To  a  Skylark. 


FEAR  AND  WORRY  279 

How  can  we  conserve  our  ethical  and  rational  character 
and  yet  not  worry  ?  Now  it  is  here  that  psychology  rightly 
claims  to  help  us,  and  religion  will  help  us  even  more. 
As  springing  out  of  the  fundamental  postulate  of  the  pro- 
found unity  of  mind  and  body,  psychology  warns  against 
the  influence  of  fatigue  on  the  nervous  sytsem.  Often 
worry  is  the  result  of  overwork  and  oftener  still  of  ill- 
regulated  work.  Loss  of  power  of  memory,  blunting 
of  the  sense  perceptions,  lessening  of  the  inhibiting  or 
checking  energy  of  the  will,  instability  and  weakness  of 
attention  —  these  are  the  results  of  a  sort  of  blood  poison- 
ing by  the  chemical  products  of  overwork  or  wrongly- 
worked  brain.  These  morbid  states  may  grow  to  a 
certain  point,  and  they  then  issue  in  neurasthenia,  the 
almost  invariable  concomitant  of  which  is  extreme  fatigue. 
Another  hint  which  psychology  offers  us  is  the  value  of  a 
wide  circle  of  interests,  if  we  would  win  the  virtue  of  en- 
durance and  suffer  with  patience  "the  slings  and  arrows 
of  outrageous  fortune."  It  is  sadly  significant  that  our 
asylum  populations  are  mainly  recruited  from  the  classes 
whose  lives  are  spent  in  narrow  monotonous  surroundings. 
Hence  the  fixed  ideas,  the  obsessions  and  generally  the 
all-absorbing  egotism  of  insanity.  With  a  good  store 
of  valuable  and  permanent  interests  one  is  well  safe- 
guarded against  the  attacks  of  worry.  For  if  he  is  shut  out 
from  one  channel  of  activity,  he  can  work  out  his  salva- 
tion in  other  directions.  All  his  fortunes  are  not  staked 
on  one  throw  of  the  dice.  Further,  the  root  of  the  wor- 
rier's misery  is  lack  of  self-control.  His  greatest  need, 
therefore,  is  moral  re-education  with  a  view  to  the  co- 
ordination of  his  powers  and  the  concentration  of  them 


28o  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

on  some  worthy  end.  It  is  true  that  the  emotions  are  not 
under  the  direct  control  of  the  will.  Nevertheless,  in- 
directly we  can  suppress  or  modify  them  by  selecting 
the  things  to  which  we  will  give  attention  and  the  things 
selected  will  excite  the  appropriate  emotion. 

But  it  is  in  religion  that  we  find  the  most  powerful  an- 
tidote to  worry.  Dr.  Saleeby  has  pointed  out  that  the  two 
greatest  religions  the  world  has  ever  seen,  Buddhism  and 
Christianity,  are  essentially  anti-worrying  religions,  though 
reaching  the  goal  indeed  by  very  different  routes.1  Bud- 
dhism says,  "Worry  is  an  inevitable  accompaniment  of 
life.  In  order  to  get  rid  of  it  you  must  destroy  the  desire 
to  live,  and  the  goal  of  all  being  is  Nirvana.  It  means 
absolute  acquiescence;  the  end  of  worry  because  the 
end  of  life."  Christianity,  on  the  contrary,  says,  "The 
great  need  is  not  less,  but  a  more  abundant  life.  Worry 
is  something  that  may  be  transcended,  and  the  power  by 
which  you  transcend  it  is  trust  in  God  and  the  service 
of  man."  Christ,  because  of  His  faith  in  the  omnipo- 
tence of  goodness,  could  utter  his  great  saying,  the  stand- 
ing rebuke  to  the  distracted  spirit,  "Be  not  therefore 
anxious  for  the  morrow,  for  the  morrow  will  be  anxious 
for  the  things  of  itself.  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil 
thereof."  It  is  not  a  theologian  but  our  leading  Amer- 
ican psychologist,  Professor  James,  who  says,  "The  sov- 
ereign cure  for  worry  is  religious  faith.  The  turbulent 
billows  of  the  fretful  surface  leave  the  deep  parts  of  the 
ocean  undisturbed,  and  to  him  who  has  a  hold  of  vaster 
and  more  permanent  realities,  the  hourly  vicissitudes  of 
his  personal  destiny  seem  relatively  insignificant  things."  ' 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  303.         a  Talks  -with  Teachers  on  Psychology. 


CHAPTER  XV 

ABNORMAL  FEARS 

WE  now  pass  on  to  speak  of  abnormal  fears.1  These 
are  evidences  or  symptoms  of  an  unhealthy  psychical 
state.  They  are  especially  associated  with  neurasthenia 
and  psychasthenia.  Neurasthenic  differ  from  psychas- 
thenic  fears  in  being  milder,  not  so  deeply  rooted  in  the 
mental  organism  and  more  amenable,  therefore,  to  psy- 
chical treatment.  When  these  fears  assume  a  precise 
and  systematized  form,  they  are  technically  called  "pho- 
bias." 2  To  enumerate  them  were  impossible;  for  a 
phobia  may  attach  itself  to  almost  any  object  or  idea. 
Among  the  more  common  are  "  monophobia,"  fear  of 
being  alone;  "claustrophobia,"  fear  of  narrow  places; 
"agoraphobia,"  fear  of  broad  or  open  places;  "ereuto- 
phobia,"  fear  of  blushing;  "  triskaidekaphobia,"  fear  of 
the  number  13;  "mysophobia,"  fear  of  dirt  or  microbes; 
"nosophobia,"  fear  of  disease.  Janet  classifies  all  pho- 
bias or  systematized  dreads  under  four  heads:  — 

i.  The  phobias  of  the  body,  —  which  arise  in  connec- 
tion with  psychic  pain  felt  on  the  movement  of  any  of 
the  limbs.  The  body  is  in  every  .respect  healthy,  yet  the 
sufferer  is  conscious  of  intense  agony:  it  may  be  in  the 

1  In  the  following  paragraphs  the  writer  is  especially  indebted  to 
Janet,  Les  Obsessions  ei  La  Psychasthenie,  and  Freud,  Neurosenlehre. 
*  From  the  Greek  Phobos,  fear. 

281 


282  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

teeth  or  in  the  skin,  ear,  eyes  —  in  brief,  in  any  part  of 
the  organism.  One  sufferer  is  afraid  to  walk;  an- 
other is  afraid  to  sit  down  because  he  has  the  feeling  that 
on  doing  so  he  is  elevated  in  the  air;  a  third  is  afraid  to 
eat  because  he  conceives  it  to  be  painful.  Janet  tells  of 
a  woman  who  from  remorse  refused  nourishment  and 
had  a  horror  of  eating.  This  trouble  was  cured,  recurred, 
and  once  more  was  cured.  On  the  third  attack  the 
trouble  assumed  an  opposite  form:  the  patient  eats  well, 
but  has  a  fear  that  her  sickness  is  coming  back;  that  she 
is  prevented  from  eating  by  this  fear,  and  that  thus  she 
is  on  the  way  to  death  from  starvation.  The  result  is 
that  she  eats  with  anxiety  from  the  fear  of  having  the 
fear  of  eating. 

2.  The  phobias  of  objects.  These  are  produced  by 
the  perception  of  certain  objects.  As  the  emotion  is 
dreaded  by  the  patient,  there  results  a  fear  of  the  object 
which  is  the  occasion  of  it.  One  trembles  at  the  sight 
of  a  dog;  another  fears  to  look  at  the  stars;  a  third  is 
terrified  at  the  thought  of  being  polluted  with  microbes. 
Dr.  Weir  Mitchell  tells  of  a  sufferer  on  whom  an  experi- 
ment was  tried.  A  cat  was  secretly  imprisoned  in  a  cup- 
board. The  patient  came  into  the  room  a  little  later. 
The  cat  was  neither  heard  nor  seen,  nor  did  the  patient 
know  that  there  was  such  an  animal  in  the  house.  Never- 
theless, after  a  few  minutes,  he  showed  the  greatest  fear, 
was  conscious  that  a  cat  was  near  at  hand,  and  as  a  result 
could  riot  be  persuaded  to  remain  in  the  room.  Dr. 
Weir  Mitchell  admits  that  he  has  found  no  satisfactory 
explanation  of  this  incident.  Readers  of  John  Bunyan's 
"Grace  Abounding"  will  remember  that  in  his  uncon- 


ABNORMAL  FEARS  283 

verted  days  he  took  great  pleasure  in  ringing  the  bells 
of  the  parish  church  at  Elstow.  Then,  under  the  goad 
of  a  morbid  conscience,  he  felt  it  to  be  wrong.  The  result 
was  that  he  contracted  a  phobia,  a  terrible  fear  of  seeing 
or  hearing  bells. 

3.  Phobias  of  situation.  These  may  develop  in  con- 
nection with  the  patient's  perception  of  a  physical  or 
moral  situation  in  which  he  happens  to  find  himself. 
For  example,  in  a  broad  or  open  space  the  patient  feels 
himself  isolated;  he  has  a  sense  of  vacancy  all  around 
him.  The  fear  amounts  to  a  terror  such  as  would  be 
produced  by  toppling  over  a  precipice.  A  classical  ex- 
ample of  this  type  of  fear  is  the  case  of  Pascal  who  was 
obsessed  throughout  his  life  by  the  feeling  that  an  abyss 
stretched  on  his  left  hand  beneath  him.1  What  gives 
rise  in  the  sufferer  to  overpowering  anxiety  is  the  feeling 
of  being  alone  without  any  moral  or  physical  support. 
The  opposite  to  agoraphobia  is  claustrophobia,  fear  of 
narrow  spaces.  Under  this  head  would  come  fear  of 
entering  a  carriage  or  a  railroad  car,  fear  of  being  in  a 
church,  a  fear  by  the  way  which  appears  to  be  very  wide- 
spread, or  fear  of  entering  a  tunnel.  The  sensation  is 
most  painful;  it  is  as  though  one  were  traveling  along  a 
corridor  which  was  becoming  more  and  more  narrow. 
Or  again  there  is  monophobia,  the  fear  of  being  alone  and 
separated  from  people.  Perhaps  the  fear  arises  from  the 
perception  not  of  a  physical  but  of  a  moral  situation. 
Here  we  have  a  typical  example  in  the  fear  of  blushing, 

1  This  fact  throws  light  on  the  references  in  his  Thoughts  to  the  dread- 
fulness  of  astronomical  space.  "  I  behold  those  terrible  spaces  of  the 
universe  which  encompass  me." 


284  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

ereutophobia.  This  very  fear  is  itself  the  cause  of  blush- 
ing. So  painful  is  this  misery  at  times  that  the  sufferer 
will  avoid  society,  give  up  his  professional  work  and  be- 
come a  misanthrope.  Another  example  is  "dysmor- 
phobia"  or  fear  of  bodily  disfigurement.  A  woman,  for 
example,  is  afraid  that  her  hair  is  falling  out,  or  that  she 
is  losing  her  teeth,  though  both  hair  and  teeth  are  quite 
as  sound  as  they  ought  to  be. 

4.  Phobias  of  ideas.  These  arise  in  consequence  of 
an  abstract  idea  which  presents  itself  to  the  mind  of  the  pa- 
tient. For  example,  a  psychasthenic  imagines  that  he 
has  outraged  religion  by,  it  may  be,  bringing  the  thought 
of  the  Deity  into  connection  with  something  trivial  or 
debasing.  There  follows  upon  this  obsession  a  phobia 
of  blasphemy  or  he  may  have  a  hypochondriacal  idea  out 
of  which  spring  all  sorts  of  morbid  imaginings  about 
death,  especially  the  fear  of  being  buried  alive. 

Many  of  these  and  allied  fears  are  so  absurd,  so  fan- 
tastically whimsical,  the  product,  one  might  suppose,  of 
a  sort  of  inverted  genius,  that  only  one  accustomed  to 
deal  with  such  sufferers  can  bear  their  condition  with 
patience.  It  cannot  be  too  forcibly  impressed  upon  the 
minds  of  friends  and  relatives  that  the  unhappy  victims 
of  thess  psychical  miseries  ought  to  be  pitied  and  helped, 
not  scolded  or  blamed. 

Perhaps  the  story  of  one  who  has  suffered  from  these 
strange  and  painful  emotions  will  be  more  helpful  and  in- 
structive than  any  abstract  discussion.  Some  twelve  years 
ago,  alone  in  his  office  one  Saturday  afternoon,  the  patient 
had  been  taking  account  of  his  financial  situation.  He 
had  weathered  the  panic  of  '93,  but  he  was  still  "playing 


ABNORMAL  FEARS  285 

a  losing  game,"  and  he  "must  keep  up  the  smile,"  as  he 
says;  for  pride  forbade  letting  go  and  starting  anew.  Sit- 
ting thus  at  his  long  office  table,  the  table  slowly  rose  in 
the  air,  he  with  it,  and  both  began  to  revolve  to  the  right, 
increasing  in  speed.  He  clung  to  the  edge  of  the  table 
and  the  mental  cyclone  continued  for  some  minutes. 
Finally,  the  man  and  table  came  to  rest,  and  shaking 
with  fear,  he  made  his  way  to  the  office  of  a  physician 
friend;  from  there  he  went  home  in  a  carriage.  Follow- 
ing upon  this  came  eye  trouble,  throat  trouble,  stomach 
trouble,  insomnia,  one  vanishing  as  another  appeared, 
like  moving  pictures,  but  the  one  abiding  thing  was  fear, 
culminating  in  panics,  or  what  the  patient  terms  "Bull 
Runs."  This  began  with  hesitation  to  go  out  of  town 
alone;  then  to  go  to  his  office  alone;  then  to  stay  at  his 
office  alone;  and  finally  to  be  alone  anywhere  at  any 
time.  Indeed,  sometimes  he  was  conscious  of  a  panic 
if  his  wife  went  out  for  an  hour,  notwithstanding  the  pres- 
ence of  a  servant  in  the  house,  a  telephone  in  the  hall, 
and  the  family  physician  only  two  blocks  away.  We  will 
now  let  the  patient  describe  his  phobias  in  his  own  words, 
and  we  do  so  with  all  the  greater  readiness  as  his  account 
is  singularly  intelligent  and  shows  incidentally  that  these 
abnormal  feelings  are  possible  to  men  otherwise  of  more 
than  ordinary  mental  power.  "I  think  to  begin  with 
the  pride  that  kept  me  going  was  after  all  fear  of  criticism. 
As  I  lost  faith  in  my  own  powers,  my  fear  of  the  eyes, 
thoughts,  and  words  of  others  increased  proportionately. 
For  example,  the  fear  in  taking  a  street-car  was  not  pri- 
marily fear  that  anything  serious  would  happen  to  me, 
but  that  something  would  happen  which  would  result  in 


286  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

a  scene  —  fear  that  I  should  make  a  spectacle  of  myself. 
I  think  the  beginning  of  every  panic  was  either  some 
slight  physical  disturbance,  a  pain,  a  dizziness,  or  some- 
thing of  that  sort;  or  else  a  matter  of  environment  or 
association  would  suggest  a  panic.  To  illustrate  this:  in 
going  to  a  specific  place  which  could  be  reached  by  two 
equidistant  routes,  if  I  had  had  a  panic  going  by  one 
route,  I  might  go  with  ease  by  the  other  path  at  another 
time;  but  a  retracing  of  the  path  in  which  a  panic  had 
overtaken  me  would  result  in  a  second  panic  at  almost 
the  identical  point  in  the  road  where  the  first  panic  had 
occurred.  I  have  found  I  can  go  further  and  more  easily 
when  the  means  of  locomotion  are  under  my  own  control, 
that  is,  walking  or  riding  a  bicycle,  or  driving  in  a  car- 
riage under  my  direction  as  contrasted  with  a  railway- 
car,  a  trolley,  or  even  a  carriage  under  the  control  of  an- 
other. I  resolve  to  go  to  my  office  on  my  wheel  —  an 
easy,  delightful  ride.  At  the  end  of  three  or  four  blocks 
I  begin  to  get  scared ;  another  block,  I  am  breathing  hard 
and  my  heart  is  pounding,  but  I  pedal  on;  another  block, 
and  I  am  shaking.  I  call  myself  a  fool  and  a  coward.  I 
ransack  the  vocabulary  of  abuse  wherewith  to  rouse  some 
sense  of  manhood,  and  I  keep  on  pedaling;  another 
block,  and  things  get  hazy,  but  I  grit  my  teeth  and  I  vow 
I  will  go  on  if  I  drop  dead  on  the  street.  Then  comes 
the  'Bull  Run.'  The  next  thing  of  which  I  am  conscious 
is  the  fact  that  I  am  riding  back  towards  home  as  though 
a  demon  were  at  my  heels.  It  is  much  the  same  in  a 
street-car  or  in  an  elevator.  I  have  often  walked  up  eight 
flights  because  I  was  unable  to  take  any  one  of  the  four 
high-speed  elevators  at  my  command,  but  I  think  I  could 


ABNORMAL  FEARS  287 

have  run  any  one  of  those  elevators  myself  all  day  with 
perfect  composure.    The  chief  permanent  effect  of  these 
panics  is  a  deepening  of  my  self-distrust.     The  imme- 
diate but  passing  effect   is   utter  exhaustion  and  inca- 
pacity for  work."      It  is  pleasant  to  be  able  to  say  that 
this  gifted  but  unhappy  man  is  on  the  road  to  recovery. 
Let  us  now  ask  by  what  methods  can  this   type  of 
suffering  be  relieved  and  cured.     Space  will  permit  only 
the  briefest  outline,     (i)  Hypnotic  suggestion.     Accord- 
ing to  some  French  investigators,  it  is  possible  to  produce 
the  hypnotic  state  only  in  patients  who  are  suffering  from 
hysteria.     Basing  his  idea  on  such  a  theory,  Janet  states 
in  the  work  on  which  we  have  so  largely  drawn,  as  well 
as  in  his  later  Harvard  lectures  on  "The  Major  Symp- 
toms of  Hysteria,"  that  it  is  impossible  to  hypnotize  the 
psychasthenic.     If  hypnosis,  as  Janet  affirms,  is  an  arti- 
ficially produced  hysteric  state  and  therefore  can  only  be 
induced  in  those  suffering  from  hysteria,  this  remark  is 
quite  true,  but  if  we  take  the  more  probable  view  that 
the  hypnotic  state  is  merely  an  artificially  produced  men- 
tal condition  allied  to  the  absent-mindedness  of  every-day 
life,  then  we  must  take  exception  to  his  statement.      Any 
one  who  has  had  any  experience  in    psychotherapeutic 
work  can  easily  recall  case  after  case  of  psychasthenia 
without  any  hysterical  manifestations  and  conforming  in 
every  detail  to  Janet's  conception  of  the  disorder  in  which 
hypnosis  was  produced  as  a  therapeutic  measure.1     (2) 
Still  more  important  than  hypnotic  suggestion  is  re-educa- 
tion.    The  function  of  the  real  must  be  restored,  and  this 

1  For  illustrations,  see  Bramwell,  Hypnotism,  its  History,  Practice 
and  Theory,  pp.  238-256. 


288  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

is  done  by  creating  a  happy  emotion.  A  happy  emotion 
increases  our  vitality.  The  more  vitality  we  have,  the 
more  conscious  are  we  of  our  reality.  The  happy  emo- 
tions can  be  produced  by  demonstrating  the  true  charac- 
ter of  the  disorder  to  the  sufferer  and  by  showing  how 
curable  it  is.  The  result  is,  the  psychological  tension  is 
relieved.  (3)  Work  is  a  valuable  therapeutic  agent. 
Physical  exercise,  especially  such  exercise  as  requires 
great  attention,  exerts  a  most  beneficial  influence  on  the 
disorder.  Cataloguing,  clay-modeling,  gymnastic  exer- 
cises are  of  the  greatest  value.  (4)  Finally,  the  religious 
instinct  should  be  appealed  to.  A  sense  of  the  ideal  pres- 
ence of  God  should  be  aroused.  The  sufferer's  faith 
that,  though  apparently  alone,  he  is  really  not  alone,  that 
about  him  is  an  Unseen  Presence,  will  often  avail  to  ward 
off  an  emotional  crisis. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

FAITH  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  POWER 

THERE  is  perhaps  no  subject  connected  with  religion 
about  which  there  is  so  much  confusion  of  thought  as 
the  question  of  faith.  This  confusion  arises  from  a  vari- 
ety of  causes.  The  word  is  used  so  vaguely  that  the 
mind  loses  itself  in  the,  attempt  to  grasp  its  real  signifi- 
cance. Sometimes  faith  is  confounded  with  credulity 
or  superstition  and  made  to  mean  belief  without  any 
evidence  why  we  should  believe  or  even  belief  against  all 
accessible  evidence,  as  in  the  famous  definition  of  the 
little  boy  that  "faith  is  believing  a  thing  when  we  know 
it  is  not  true."  Again,  misapprehension  sometimes  springs 
from  failure  to  distinguish  between  faith  as  a  principle 
of  our  nature,  which  in  the  religious  sphere  brings  us 
into  contact  with  spiritual  reality,  and  faith  as  a  body  of 
beliefs  formulated  in  a  more  or  less  elaborate  creed  and 
accepted  by  Christian  people.  As  these  beliefs  are  ex- 
pressed differently  in  different  parts  of  the  Church,  it 
comes  about  that  the  Roman  Catholic  regards  his  Prot- 
estant brother  as  a  man  without  faith.  Once  more, 
the  popular  mind  is  bewildered  on  this  subject  because 
faith  as  a  primary  instinct  of  the  soul  is  not  open  to  scien- 
tific definition  like  a  fact  in  the  physical  world.  It  is  too 
subtle,  too  deeply  interwoven  with  the  roots  of  the  spirit- 
ual life  to  offer  itself  to  any  intellectual  analysis.  To 

289 


290  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

the  question,  What  is  Faith?  only  a  very  general  answer 
can  be  given,  such  as  that  of  the  writer  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews:  "Faith  is  assurance  of  things  hoped  for, 
a  conviction  of  things  not  seen."  That  is,  faith  makes 
the  invisible  world  real  to  us;  convinces  us  that  the  things 
of  the  spirit  are  not  fancies  but  ultimate  realities. 

Let  us  at  the  outset  rid  our  minds  of  a  very  prevalent 
idea.  We  often  hear  men  say,  "Faith  belongs  to  relig- 
ion; knowledge  is  the  mark  of  science;  the  weakness 
of  religion  is  its  uncertainty;  the  strength  of  science  is  its 
firm  standing  on  the  bed-rock  of  observation  and  experi- 
ment." Yet  as  Professor  Royce  has  abundantly  shown, 
the  whole  structure  of  science  rests  upon  a  body  of  great 
faiths,  of  beliefs  which  must  be  trusted  but  cannot  be 
proved.1  For  example,  there  is  one  great  belief  to  which 
the  scientist  is  passionately  attached:  the  belief,  that  is 
to  say,  that  nature  is  intelligible,  that  in  spite  of  all  ap- 
pearances to  the  contrary,  nature  can  be  understood,  is 
indeed  the  embodiment  of  thought.  Such  a  faith  which 
lies  behind  all  the  great  scientific  advances  and  discov- 
eries of  the  modern  world  must  be  first  accepted  and 
relied  on,  and  in  proportion  as  it  is  accepted  and  relied 
on  it  evinces  its  genuineness.  If  you  still  insist  that  the 
scientific  man  should  prove  to  you  the  uniformity  of  na- 
ture or  that  there  is  a  causal  connection  between  events, 
he  will  simply  turn  upon  you  with  the  threat,  "If  you 
cannot  accept  this  faith  of  mine,  it  is  because  the  spirit 
of  science  is  not  in  you."  It  is  therefore  no  reproach  to 
religion  to  say  that  it  is  based  on  faith,  for  if  this  is  a 
weakness,  it  is  one  that  it  shares  with  science.  But  not 

'  The  Religious  Aspect  of  Philosophy,  pp.  291-324. 


FAITH  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  POWER        291 

science  only.  Our  ordinary  life  is  grounded  in  faith. 
The  greatest  rationalist  among  us  who  loves  to  think  of 
himself  as  viewing  all  things  in  the  dry  light  of  reason  and 
of  being  governed  by  pure  logic  is  in  reality  under  the 
control  of  facts  and  forces  which  he  himself  has  never 
tested.  When  he  is  overtaken  with  some  sickness,  he 
speedily  forgets  his  rationalism,  calls  in  the  doctor  and 
swallows  his  medicine  in  faith,  and  as  we  now  know, 
the  greater  his  faith,  the  more  potent  the  medicine.  Or 
again,  in  some  crisis  of  his  fortunes,  he  commits  himself 
to  the  guidance  of  a  friend.  Doubtless  he  has  a  certain 
knowledge  of  his  friend's  character  which  leads  him  to  an 
attitude  of  trust,  but  still  in  the  last  analysis  the  reason 
for  this  trust  is  that  he  divines  by  intuition  certain  qual- 
ities in  his  friend  that  are  not  upon  the  surface  and  that 
do  not  lend  themselves  to  any  logical  analysis  and  argu- 
ment. He  is  able  to  do  this  in  virtue  of  kindred  sym- 
pathies in  his  own  nature.  If  he  did  not  believe  in  his 
friend  until  the  friend  gave  him  formal  proofs  of  his 
trustworthiness,  he  would  be  forced  to  go  friendless 
-through  life. 

Now  faith  is  the  same,  whether  we  exercise  it  in  our 
fellowmen  or  in  God.  The  difference  does  not  lie  in 
the  quality  of  the  faith  but  in  the  object  to  which  the  faith 
is  directed.  Religious  faith  is  simply  that  trust  which 
the  scientist  puts  in  nature  and  its  sequences,  which  all 
normally  constituted  men  put  in  their  friends,  only  now 
it  is  extended  to  the  sphere  of  the  unseen  where  it  becomes 
trust  in  the  goodness  of  God,  in  the  Divine  Love  as  the 
law  of  creation.  Just  as  the  scientist  believes  in  the  per- 
fect order  of  nature  in  spite  of  experiences  to  the  con- 


292  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

trary,  or  just  as  the  ordinary  man  believes  in  his  friend 
against  superficial  contradictions,  so  the  religious  man  be- 
lieves in  the  goodness  of  God  and  in  the  victory  of  this 
goodness  in  spite  of  all  that  seems  to  tell  against  it. 

Now  among  the  things  which  seem  to  tell  against  faith 
in  the  infinite  goodness  of  the  Power  which  this  universe 
discloses  are  the  facts  of  pain  and  disease.  Ever  since 
man  has  arisen  to  self-conscious  thought,  these  phenom- 
ena have  troubled  him,  have  infected  his  spirit  with 
doubt,  have  created  the  spiritual  turmoil  out  of  which 
have  sprung  the  great  theodicies  of  the  world.  We  may 
take  it  that  an  ultimate  solution  of  the  problem  of  pain 
is  not  yet  possible.  Must  faith  then  believe  blindly, 
that  is,  irrationally;  or  can  we  point  to  any  fact  as  throw- 
ing light  upon  the  Divine  attitude  toward  pain  and  dis- 
ease, any  fact  on  which  faith  can  find  a  firm  standing 
ground  from  which  with  untroubled  eye  it  can  view  the 
whole  problem?  We  have  referred  more  than  once  to 
the  so-called  healing  power  of  nature.  What  does  this 
mean?  From  the  standpoint  of  the  physiology  of  to-day 
it  means  that  there  is  a  tendency  in  the  tissue  itself 
towards  health  and  normality.  This  is  one  of  the  accepted 
commonplaces  of  pathological  investigation.  But  if  the 
order  of  nature  is  the  expression  of  the  Divine  Will  it 
follows  that  God  wills  health,  that  He  means  his  crea- 
tures to  be  healthy,  and  that  He  is  opposed  to  pain,  dis- 
ease, abnormality  of  every  kind,  just  as  He  is  opposed 
to  sin  and  vice.  We  now  know  that  in  spite  of  all  that 
can  be  urged  to  the  contrary,  God  is  on  the  side  of  order, 
of  health,  mental  and  physical.  Doubtless  in  the  present 
stage  of  things  there  are  limitations  to  the  full  realiza- 


FAITH  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  POWER        293 

tion  of  this  gracious  Will,  but  if  faith  is  shut,  up  to  the 
dilemma  of  denying  either  the  omnipotence  or  the  per- 
fect goodness  of  God,  it  will  instinctively  sacrifice  His 
physical  to  His  moral  attributes. 

If  we  regard  faith  simply  as  a  psychical  process  or 
mental  attitude,  history  and  experience  alike  testify  that 
it  has  healing  virtue.  Not  only  does  it  form  an  indis- 
pensable factor  in  the  various  healing  cults  from  those 
of  ancient  Egypt  and  Rome  to  the  mesmerism  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  and  the  Christian  Science,  the  spiritualism 
and  the  ecclesiastical  pilgrimages  to  this  or  that  sacred 
shrine  in  our  own  time,  but  also  it  may  be  said  to  enter 
into  all  modern  scientific  psychotherapy.  What  indeed 
is  psychotherapy  at  bottom  but  an  elaborate  system  of 
suggestion,  and  what  would  suggestion  avail  were  it  not 
met  with  trust  on  the  part  of  the  sufferer?  Faith  is  as 
necessary  in  a  psychological  clinic  as  at  Lourdes  or  St. 
Anne  de  Beaupre.  "Confidence,"  says  Feuchtersleben, 
"  acts  like  a  real  force."  Hence  it  is  not  so  much  the  qual- 
ity as  the  strength  of  the  faith  that  is  of  vital  moment  so 
far  as  the  removal  of  a  given  disorder  is  concerned.  The 
relic  of  a  dead  superstition,  a  bone  from  the  supposed 
skeleton  of  a  mediaeval  saint,  may  achieve  as  great  things 
in  the  cure  of  physical  disorders  as  faith  in  the  living  God. 
How  is  it  that  faith  as  a  mere  mental  state  has  this  power  ? 
Modern  physiology  gives  the  answer.  It  tells  us  that 
the  processes  of  the  body  are  controlled  by  the  two  great 
nerve  systems,  the  cerebro-spinal  and  the  sympathetic. 
We  perform  our  conscious  acts  through  the  mechanism 
of  the  brain;  but  the  involuntary  physical  processes,  such 
as  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  the  complicated  process 


294  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

of  turning  the  food  we  consume  into  bone  and  flesh,  in 
a  word,  all  the  vital  chemistries  of  the  body,  are  carried 
on  by  means  of  the  sympathetic  nerve  system.  Now  it 
is  on  this  system  that  the  emotions  have  most  direct  effect. 
Fear  disorganizes  and  paralyzes  the  delicate  machinery 
of  the  nervous  organism,  and  as  a  result  its  various  func- 
tional activities  are  disturbed  or  inhibited.  On  the  other 
hand,  faith  stimulates  and  harmonizes  them.  Well  has 
it  been  said  that  "  there  is  no  tonic  so  uplifting  and  renew- 
ing as  joy,  which  sets  into  active  exercise  every  construc- 
tive power  of  the  body."  Now  faith  is  a  joyous  emotion. 
Any  object  which  excites  it  profoundly  affects  the  uncon- 
scious bodily  functions.  It  sets  the  body  at  ease  and  thus 
enables  its  functions  to  be  carried  on  calmly  and  normally. 
Such  is  the  power  even  of  a  blind  or  credulous  faith.  But 
its  power  is  limited  to  the  physiological  region.  There 
is  a  realm  within  which  it  is  worthless.  It  cannot  recon- 
struct character  or  summon  anew  into  exercise  ethical 
forces.  A  superstitious  faith  may,  and  does,  work  physio- 
logical blessing.  Ethically  and  spiritually  it  can  achieve 
only  harm.  The  more  deeply  personality  is  involved  in 
any  given  ailment,  the  more  necessary  is  it  that  faith 
should  have  an  object  worthy  of  man's  ethical  dignity 
and  one  fitted  to  draw  forth  in  reverence  all  his  moral 
and  spiritual  energies.  Such  an  object  can  be  found 
alone  in  the  supreme  Reality,  the  Father  of  Spirits. 

There  are  many  who  feel  with  Frederick  Denison  Mau- 
rice that  the  God  thus  offered  to  faith  seems  too  often  but 
a  dim  shadow  thrown  from  our  own  minds  with  which  no 
vital  contact  is  possible.  But  in  Christ  we  see  unveiled  the 
glory  of  God.  There  have  been  other  great  teachers,  great 


FAITH  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  POWER         295 

reformers,  great  saints,  but  in  Him  the  Divine  has  en- 
tered in  a  unique  way  into  humanity  and  thus  offers  itself 
to  the  love  and  faith  of  men.  There  are  aspects  and 
regions  of  the  Divine  nature  inaccessible  to  our  limited 
minds,  and  hence  an  element  of  reverent  agnosticism 
must  enter  into  all  our  thinking  about  God,  but  that  as- 
pect of  His  being  which  can  be  apprehended  by  human 
faculties  is  revealed  in  Jesus  as  it  is  revealed  nowhere 
else.  He  interprets  God  to  us.  The  shadowy,  the 
abstract,  become  in  Him  real  and  concrete.  In  His 
suffering,  in  His  teaching,  in  His  compassionate  activity 
as  the  healer  of  the  souls  and  bodies  of  men,  in  His  entire 
person  as  the  embodiment  of  all  those  qualities  which 
are  most  divine  yet  most  human  —  in  all  this  we  see  God's 
inmost  feeling,  His  attitude  toward  the  world  and  toward 
the  individual  soul.  Trust  in  such  a  God  draws  together 
the  scattered  forces  of  the  inner  life,  unifies  the  dissocia- 
tions of  consciousness  created  by  guilt  and  remorse, 
soothes  the  wild  emotions  born  of  sorrow  or  despair,  and 
touches  the  whole  man  to  finer  issues  of  peace  and  power 
and  holiness.  By  the  sweet  constraint  of  such  a  faith, 
the  jarred  and  jangled  nerves  are  restored  to  harmony. 
The  sense  of  irremediable  ill  disappears  and  hope  sheds 
her  light  once  more  upon  the  darkened  mind. 

Perhaps  nowhere  in  history  can  we  find  the  power  of 
faith  to  heal  disorders  of  a  semi-moral  and  semi-nervous 
character  so  strikingly  illustrated  as  in  the  early  centuries 
of  the  church's  existence.  The  literature  of  the  ante- 
Nicene  period  is  permeated  with  a  sense  of  conquest  over 
sickness,  disease,  and  moral  ills  of  every  kind.  The  prim- 
itive Church  indeed  accepted  the  current  philosophy  of 


296  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

disease.  It  was  a  wide- spread  belief  not  only  among 
Jews  and  Christians  but  generally  throughout  the  Graeco- 
Roman  world  that  demons  or  malignant  spirits  caused 
all  sorts  of  sickness  and  psychical  disorders,  indeed  in  a 
very  real  sense  ruled  the  world.  This  belief  was  not  con- 
fined to  the  uneducated.  Even  such  a  man  as  the  highly 
cultured  Celsus,  the  great  critic  of  Christianity,  believed 
in  demoniacal  activity.  Tertullian  (197  A.D.)  devotes 
two  chapters  of  his  Apology  to  a  discussion  of  the 
nature  and  influence  of  these  evil  powers.  "They"  (the 
demons),  he  says,  "inflict  on  the  body  diseases  and  many 
grievous  mishaps  and  violently  visit  the  man  with  sud- 
den and  extraordinary  aberrations.  Their  wonderful 
subtlety  and  tenuity  give  them  access  to  both  parts  of  man. 
Spiritual  agencies  possess  great  powers.  ...  If  some 
hidden  blight  in  the  breeze  unseasonably  hastens  forward 
any  fruit  or  grain  in  blossom,  nips  it  in  the  bud,  or  blasts 
it  in  maturity,  and  if  the  air  infected  in  some  unseen 
way  pours  forth  its  poisonous  currents;  then  by  the  same 
obscure  contagion  the  influence  of  demons  and  angels 
brings  about  the  corruption  also  of  the  mind  with  fury 
and  foul  madness  or  with  fierce  lusts,  bringing  various 
errors  in  their  train.  .  .  .  They  are  sorcerers  also  truly 
in  respect  to  the  cure  of  diseases,  for  they  first  cause  the 
injury  and  then  in  order  to  make  it  seem  like  a  miracle 
prescribe  remedies  which  are  either  new  or  absolutely 
opposed  to  the  ordinary  methods  of  treatment,  after  which 
they  stop  causing  the  injury  and  are  believed  to  have 
effected  a  cure."1  Harnack  sums  up  well  the  prevailing 
mode  of  thought  when  he  says,  "The  whole  world  and 

1  Apology,  chap.  xrii. 


FAITH  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  POWER        297 

the  circumambient  atmosphere  were  filled  with  devils; 
not  merely  idolatry,  but  every  phase  and  form  of  life 
was  ruled  by  them.  They  sat  on  thrones;  they  hov- 
ered around  cradles.  The  earth  was  literally  a  hell, 
though  it  was  and  continued  to  be  a  creation  of  God."1 
Now  the  early  Church  believed  that  Jesus  had  committed 
to  her  weapons  wherewith  to  attack  and  rout  these  evil 
forces  and  to  rescue  souls  from  their  grasp.  This  was 
no  small  part  of  the  secret  of  the  rapid  growth  of  the 
Christian  communities.  The  great  masses  of  the  ancient 
world  lay  sunken  in  superstition,  held  fast  by  the  fanati- 
cism of  an  unbalanced  imagination.  In  this  profound 
darkness  the  Church  was  the  one  bright  spot.  "No 
flight  of  imagination,"  says  Harnack,  "can  form  any 
idea  of  what  would  have  come  over  the  ancient  world  or 
the  Roman  Empire  during  the  third  century  had  it  not 
been  for  the  Church."  2  Gibbon,  in  his  famous  fifteenth 
chapter,  mentions  as  the  third  cause  of  the  spread  of 
Christianity,  "the  miraculous  powers  of  the  primitive 
Church,"  among  which  he  names  the  expulsion  of  demons, 
but  he  dismisses  the  whole  matter  with  a  scoff  as  the 
product  of  superstition.  Wider  knowledge  now  shows  that 
the  historian's  skepticism  was  quite  unjustified.  There 
is  abundant  testimony  that  one  of  the  most  important 
factors  in  the  early  propaganda  of  the  Christian  faith 
was  an  especial  power  which  Christians  seemed  to  have 
over  various  psychical  disturbances.  If  this  healing  was 
a  mere  pretense  and  meant  nothing,  it  is  hard  to  see  how 
it  could  have  induced  opponents  to  embrace  the  new 

1  Expansion  of  Christianity,  vol.  i,  p.   161.      (English  translation.) 

2  Ibid.,  p.  158. 


298  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

religion.  Indeed  so  wide  spread  was  this  healing  power 
of  the  Christians  that  the  third  century  witnessed  the 
rise  of  a  special  order  of  men  within  the  Church  whose 
function  it  was  to  cast  out  demons  or,  as  we  would  now 
say,  to  cure  nervous  disorders.  The  Apologists  again 
and  again  refer  to  this  fact  as  one  not  open  to  doubt. 
Justin  Martyr  (138-150  A.D.),  writing  to  the  Roman 
emperor  of  his  day,  gives  the  very  formula  which  the 
exorcist  used.  He  says:  "Many  of  our  Christian  people 
have  healed  a  large  number  of  demoniacs  throughout 
the  whole  world  and  also  in  your  own  city,  exorcising 
them  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  "who  was  crucified  under 
Pontius  Pilate.  Yet  all  other  exorcists,  magicians,  and 
dealers  in  drugs  failed  to  heal  such  people.  "  *  Irenaeus, 
writing  about  the  year  180  A.D.,  says:  "Those  who  are 
the  true  disciples  of  Jesus  exercise  in  His  name  a  healing 
ministry  according  to  the  gift  which  each  has  received 
from  Him.  Some  surely  drive  out  demons,  so  that  it 
frequently  happens  that  those  thus  purged  from  demons 
also  believe  and  become  members  of  the  Church." 2 
Tertullian  challenges  his  opponents  boldly  with  an 
appeal  to  their  own  experience.  "All  this  dominion 
of  ours  and  power  over  them  (the  demons)  derives 
its  force  from  the  naming  of  Christ  ...  so  at  our 
touch  and  at  our  breath  they  depart  unwillingly  and 
reluctantly  at  our  command  out  of  the  bodies  of  men, 
and  blush  with  shame  in  your  presence."  3  And  again, 
"What  else  would  deliver  you  from  those  secret  enemies 
who  are  ruining  both  your  mental  and  physical  powers 

1  Apology,  II:  6.      Cp.  II:  8. 

2  Adverse  Herescs,  Book  II,  xxxii.  4.  »  Apology,  chap,  xxiii. 


FAITH  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  POWER        299 

in  every  way  ?  I  refer  to  the  attacks  of  the  demons  whom 
we  expel  from  you  without  price  or  reward."1  Cyprian, 
Origen,  Athanasius,  and  other  ecclesiastical  writers  bear 
similar  witness.  Even  as  late  as  the  time  of  Augustine, 
we  find  the  belief  in  the  healing  power  of  faith  still  exist- 
ent. In  his  "City  of  God"  he  describes  various  healing 
wonders  of  which  he  was  an  eye-witness  and  which  were 
done  in  the  name  of  Christ.2  In  the  course  of  time,  ex- 
orcism as  a  regular  function  of  the  Church  died  out, 
partly  through  the  abuses  to  which  it  gave  rise,  partly 
through  the  secularizing  of  the  Church,  with  the  conse- 
quent loss  of  faith,  and  partly  through  the  belief  that 
pain,  disease,  and  weakness  were  the  expressions  of  the 
Divine  Will  and  were  even  helpful  to  the  spiritual  life. 
And  yet  it  is  significant  that  throughout  later  history  the 
appearance  of  any  great  religious  personality  synchro- 
nized with  an  outburst  of  healing  power.  Francis  of  Assisi, 
Luther,  George  Fox,  and  John  Wesley  were  not  only  great 
spiritual  thinkers,  but  also  by  the  strength  of  their  faith 
were  able  in  certain  cases  to  set  up  a  powerful  psychical 
stimulus  which  resulted  in  the  restoration  of  health  to  the 
sufferers;  and  wherever  there  has  been  a  revival  of  relig- 
ious life  it  has  been  accompanied  by  a  more  abundant 
sense  of  well-being  both  in  soul  and  in  body. 

1  Apology,  chap,  xxxvii.  Compare  also  chap,  xliii;  A d  Scapulam,  a;  De 
Testimonio  Aninuz,  3 ;  Cyprian,  Ep.  75 ;  Lactantius,  Instil.  Divin.,  II :  16; 
V:  22;  Origen,  ConlraCelsum,!:  25;  VII:  4;  Athanasius,  De  Incarn.,  48. 

2  Compare  Book  XXII,  8.      Isaac  Taylor  denies  the  genuineness  of 
these  cures  and   refers  them  to  wilful  imposture  on   the  part  of  the 
Church.     Modem  knowledge,  on   the  contrary,  makes  them  psycho- 
logically probable.     The  Roman  Catholic  view  has  won  the  day  as 
against  the  older  Protestant  theory. 


300  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

We  are  suffering  for  the  Church's  neglect  at  the  pres- 
ent time.  Outside  her  borders  mental  healing  cults  are 
springing  up  and  seek  in  devious  enough  ways  to  supply 
her  lack.  The  majority  of  these  systems  have  broken 
with  historical  Christianity,  and  all  of  them  regard 
academic  medicine  with  distrust,  if  not  with  positive 
contempt.  Some  of  them  interpret  Scripture  in  a  way 
which  excites  the  scholar's  disgust.  Others  reject  the 
Bible  altogether  as  a  religious  authority,  and  ground 
themselves  on  a  kind  of  theosophy  baptized  with  the 
name  of  Christian.  Nevertheless  all  these  cults  heal 
the  sick,  dissipate  various  kinds  of  miseries,  afford  moral 
uplift  to  the  depressed  and  create  an  atmosphere  of  faith, 
hope,  and  courage  in  which  achievements  are  wrought 
that  recall  the  early  springtime  of  Christianity.  But  had 
the  Church  been  loyal  to  her  earlier  traditions;  had  she 
not  lost  the  heroism  of  faith,  these  systems  would  never 
have  been  born.  They  will  serve  no  mean  purpose  if 
they  succeed  in  recalling  the  Church  to  the  primitive 
practice  and  to  the  realization  of  the  unsuspected  riches 
of  the  Christian  Gospel.  A  good  many  physicians,  even 
those  who  admit  the  value  of  psychical  treatment  in  ner- 
vous disorders,  are  still  disposed  to  deny  that  religious 
ideas  can  have  any  therapeutic  value.  In  so  far  as  these 
men  claim  to  be  scientific,  they  will  admit  that  in  such  a 
matter  the  only  test  is  experiment,  and  until  they  have 
tried  to  use  the  power  of  religion  and  have  failed  they 
cannot  set  it  aside  as  valueless.  On  the  basis  of  our 
experience,  however,  we  can  affirm  that  religion  has  a 
distinct  power  in  certain  types  of  trouble.  And  it  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  it  will  continue  to  have  this 


FAITH  AND   ITS  THERAPEUTIC  POWER        301 

power  as  long  as  perverted  religious  ideas  form  a  promi- 
nent factor  in  the  causation  of  the  maladies  that  fill  our 
asylums.  Moreover,  if,  as  we  contend,  religion  is  an 
essential  element  in  the  normal  life  of  humanity,  sound 
religious  ideas  must  play  a  considerable  r6le  in  the 
maintenance  of  sound  mental  and  nervous  health.  The 
Church  of  to-day  has  weapons  at  her  disposal  which  were 
denied  to  the  Church  of  the  early  centuries.  In  the 
first  place,  there  are  the  resources  of  modern  science, 
and  more  especially  of  the  science  of  psychological  med- 
icine. We  know  more  about  the  nature  of  psychical 
disorder  than  did  ancient  men.  In  the  second  place, 
we  have  a  new  sense  of  the  unity  of  body  and  spirit  and 
we  are  no  longer  hindered  and  depressed  by  the  somber 
imagination  that  peoples  the  world  with  demons.  We 
know  that  God  has  not  committed  the  humanity  He  has 
made  to  torture  and  despair.  Finally,  the  history  of 
Christianity  fills  us  with  boundless  hope.  Again  and 
again  it  has  been  threatened  with  extinction  and  again  and 
again  it  has  burst  forth  into  new  activity  and  revealed 
unsuspected  resources..  It  looks  as  if  in  answer  to  the 
materialism  of  the  age,  faith,  especially  faith  in  God  as 
He  has  revealed  Himself  in  Christ,  should  once  more 
prove  its  power  to  remove  mountains,  to  lift  the  burden 
of  despair,  to  cure  the  distempered  souls  of  men. 


CHAPTER  XVn 

PRAYER  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE 

ONE  of  our  most  natural  human  instincts  is  prayer. 
The  moral  life  of  man  began  with  prayer,  and  if  the  Son 
of  Man  find  faith  upon  the  earth,  it  will  end  in  prayer. 
Prehistoric  man  used  amulets  and  charms  which  were 
simply  prayers  for  protection  against  the  hostile  forces 
with  which  he  felt  himself  surrounded,  and  historic  man 
from  the  first  moment  of  his  appearance  is  engaged  in 
the  act  of  praying.  The  papyri  which  are  being  un- 
earthed from  Egyptian  graves,  the  tablets  of  ancient 
Babylon,  contain  much  that  is  superstitious  and  credulous, 
but  they  also  contain  the  speech  of  men  in  presence  of 
their  Divinity.  The  first  recorded  utterance  of  our 
own  great  Aryan  people  is  the  magnificent  expression  of 
prayer  contained  in  the  Vedic  hymns.  And  what  is 
true  of  the  Vedas  is  also  true  of  the  sacred  books  of 
all  ancient  peoples.  All  the  higher  religions  that  exist 
to-day  witness  to  the  belief  in  prayer.  Within  a  Moham- 
medan mosque  there  stood  once  two  ministers  of  the 
Christian  religion,  the  one  a  Roman  Catholic,  the  other 
a  Protestant.  Said  the  Roman  Catholic  to  the  Protes- 
tant, as  they  listened  to  the  impressive  prayers  from  the 
Koran,  "Men  who  pray  like  this  cannot  be  far  from  the 
Kingdom  of  God."1  And  for  modern  civilized  man  at 

1  Dawson,  The  Forgotten  Secret,  p.  5. 
302 


PRAYER  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE   303 

times,  at  least,  prayer  is  natural.  However  much  we 
may  forget  God  among  the  superficial  distractions  of 
our  mundane  lives,  and  however  difficult  we  may  find  it 
to  hold  real  communion  with  Him,  in  those  hours  when 
we  really  live,  when  the  heart  speaks,  when  the  frozen 
depths  are  broken  up,  we  turn  to  God  as  naturally  as 
the  flower  turns  to  the  sun,  as  a  child  turns  to  its  mother. 
A  great  joy  comes  to  us,  and  unconsciously  our  heart 
goes  out  to  God  in  thanksgiving  for  that  joy.  Grief 
comes,  loneliness  and  separation,  and  the  God  who  seemed 
so  far  off  suddenly  comes  very  near,  reveals  Himself  as 
our  only  treasure,  our  only  home.  Sudden  death  comes, 
and  even  irreligious  men  depart  commending  their  souls 
blindly,  perhaps  half  profanely,  into  the  hands  of  the 
God  to  whom  they  feel  they  are  going.  These  are  the 
expressions  of  what  Tertullian  in  his  famous  phrase  calls 
"the  soul  naturally  Christian."  The  instinctiveness  of 
prayer,  the  fact  that  all  men  from  the  beginning  almost  to 
the  present  time  have  prayed  and  that  the  great  major- 
ity of  men  still  pray,  is  the  most  powerful  argument  for 
prayer,  because  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  an  instinct  so 
universal  subserves  no  purpose  hi  the  divine  economy 
of  life. 

A  complete  rationale  of  prayer  is  impossible.  How 
can  one  analyze  the  act  wherein  the  finite  mingles  with 
the  Infinite?  "In  prayer,"  says  Jowett,  "as  in  all  relig- 
ion, there  is  something  that  it  is  impossible  to  describe 
and  that  seems  to  be  untrue  the  moment  it  is  expressed 
in  words."1  Nevertheless,  as  far  as  possible,  we  ought 
to  try  to  understand  the  meaning  of  prayer  and  to  relate 

1  Interpretation  of  Scripture  and  other  Essays,  p.  331. 


304  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

it  to  the  other  elements  in  our  .experience.  From  the 
dawn  of  man's  spiritual  life,  God  has  spoken  to  man. 
However  man  first  became  aware  of  a  Spirit  behind  or 
within  this  universe,  he  has  been  aware  of  it,  and  he  has 
felt  that  in  this  Infinite  Spirit  he  lives  and  that  on  this 
Spirit  his  life  and  salvation  depend.  Not  only  has  man 
been  conscious  of  his  dependence  on  a  higher  Power, 
but  also  he  has  sought  to  bring  himself  more  and  more 
into  harmonious  relations  with  this  Power,  and  his 
desire  goes  forth  in  prayer.  In  a  sense  prayer  is  man's 
language  with  God.  It  is  obvious  that  such  a  spiritual 
exercise  must  have  a  beneficial  reflex  effect  upon  the  mind 
of  him  who  prays.  "The  man  who  offers  up  his  peti- 
tions with  passionate  earnestness,  with  unswerving  faith 
and  with  a  vivid  realization  of  the  presence  of  an  Unseen 
Being,  has  risen  to  a  condition  of  mind  which  is  itself 
eminently  favorable  both  to  his  own  happiness  and  to 
the  expansion  of  his  moral  qualities."1  The  presuppo- 
sition of  prayer  is  the  reality  of  God.  To  recognize  His 
reality  means  to  recognize  our  absolute  dependence  on 
Him.  To  perceive  the  reality  of  God  and  yet  never  com- 
mune with  Him  involves  a  profound  cleft  in  the  inner 
life  which  must  end  in  death;  whereas  prayer,  the  ex- 
pression of  our  normal  relation  to  God,  is  a  sign  of  life. 3 
But  to  the  great  majority  of  Christians  prayer  means 
something  more  than  this.  It  is  not  merely  communion 
with  God;  it  is  the  offering  of  certain  petitions,  the 
making  of  certain  requests  with  the  expectation  that  our 
prayers,  as  we  say,  will  be  answered  and  our  petitions 

1  Lecky,  History  of  European  Morals,  vol.  i,  p.  36. 

2  Cf.  RcaUncyklopadic.    Art.  Gebet. 


PRAYER  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE        305 

granted.  Now  this  conception  of  prayer  comes  into  con- 
flict with  the  modern  idea  of  nature.  We  must  remember 
that  the  early  Christian,  like  his  contemporaries,  regarded 
every  phenomenon  of  nature  as  an  independent  act  of 
Divine  Power;  whereas  we  regard  the  world  as  an  ordered 
system  of  inviolable  laws.  A  true  Christian  instinct 
prevents  us  from  praying  that  God  should  arrest  the  law 
of  gravitation  or  raise  the  dead  or  affect  the  movement 
of  the  tides.  But  outside  of  these  few  conspicuous,  fixed, 
and  eternal  expressions  of  the  will  of  God,  there  is  a  large 
domain  in  which  things  seem  to  happen  more  fortuitously 
and  more  irregularly,  such  as  the  condition  of  the  atmos- 
phere, the  growth  of  the  crops,  the  approach  of  sickness 
and  death  and  other  dreaded  events.  Hence  many  per- 
sons who  would  never  dream  of  annulling  the  law  of 
gravitation  by  prayer  have  found  it  natural  to  pray  for 
rain  or  fair  weather  as  they  deemed  one  or  the  other  desir- 
able, for  the  victory  of  their  armies  or  for  the  fruitfulness 
of  their  fields.  But  modern  science  has  entered  these 
realms  one  after  another,  and  has  shown  that  even  such 
apparently  uncertain  things  as  storms,  drought,  and  the 
like  are  equally  the  result  of  universal  law,  which  in 
reality  is  just  as  changeless  as  the  law  of  gravitation. 
So  multitudes  of  men,  believing  that  prayer  can  have  no 
effect  on  the  ordering  of  their  lives,  have  ceased  to  pray. 
Like  James  Thomson,  they  are  ready  to  say: 

"The  world  rolls  on  forever  like  a  mill, 
It  grinds  out  death  and  life  and  good  and  ill. 
It  has  no  purpose,  heart,  nor  word,  nor  will." 

Sir  Oliver  Lodge  reduces  the  outstanding  controversy 
between  science  and  faith  to  the  question  of  the  efficacy 


306  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

of  prayer.  "Is  prayer  to  hypothetical  and  supersensuous 
beings  as  senseless  and  useless  as  it  is  unscientific?  Or 
does  prayer  pierce  through  the  husk  and  apparently 
sensuous  covering  of  the  universe  and  reach  something 
living,  loving,  and  helpful  beyond  ?"  *  Admitting  fully  the 
inflexibility  of  natural  law,  it  is  a  very  inadequate  reason 
for  ceasing  to  pray  and  is  really  based  upon  a  low  concep- 
tion of  religion.  The  lowest  form  of  religion,  which  is 
fetichism,  is  distinguished  by  this  peculiarity:  it  believes 
that  by  prayer  or  magic  or  other  necromantic  charm  it 
can  control  the  will  of  the  Divinity,  and  when  the  god 
proves  himself  obdurate,  when  the  rain  does  not  fall  or 
the  cow  is  not  cured  or  the  enemy  is  not  conquered,  then 
the  god  is  insulted  and  his  image  trailed  in  the  dust. 
A  higher  form  of  religion  recognizes  the  fact  that  all 
these  things  are  controlled  by  a  mysterious  fate,  and 
does  not  blame  its  God  for  not  being  able  to  avert  the 
inevitable.  The  highest  religion,  however,  sees  in  every- 
thing that  happens  the  expression  of  the  will  of  God, 
and  while  accepting  the  whole  discipline  of  life  as  the 
education  of  a  loving  Father,  aims  at  bending  man's  will 
to  God's  and  not  God's  will  to  the  ofttimes  blind  and 
misguided  desires  of  man.  It  does  not  conceive  that  there 
is  any  a  priori  necessity  attaching  to  natural  law,  or  that 
it  has  any  independent  and  coercive  power;  for  an  analysis 
of  the  idea  of  law  will  show  that  it  has  no  meaning  except 
as  the  expression  of  will.  The  universe  then  is  governed 
by  the  Divine  Will.  It  conceives  rather  that  history  and 
experience  show  that  this  Will  energizes  according  to 
certain  regular  modes  or  methods,  which  we  have  agreed 

1  Hibberi  Journal,  vol.  i,  p.  61. 


PRAYER  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE   307 

to  call  the  laws  of  nature.  But  what  if  there  should  be  a 
law  of  prayer  amid  the  mysteries  of  the  universe  ?  Even 
if  you  are  convinced  that  no  prayer  of  yours  can  quiet  the 
storm  or  augment  your  fortune,  or  check  the  dreaded  de- 
velopment of  the  disease  which  is  taking  your  loved  one 
from  your  sight,  are  there  no  storms  within  your  own  soul 
which  prayer  can  quell?  are  there  no  spiritual  treasures 
more  precious  than  all  earthly  possessions  —  peace  and 
reconciliation  and  pardon,  that  earnest  prayer  and  com- 
munion with  God  can  give  you?  Even  if  you  have 
prayed  for  the  preservation  of  the  life  of  your  loved  one, 
and  that  prayer  has  not  been  answered  in  the  sense  in 
which  it  was  offered,  is  it  nothing  that  by  prayer  you  have 
reached  the  joyful  conviction  that  your  loved  one  is  safe 
in  God  and  that  in  God  you  will  find  him  again  ?  Tenny- 
son is  reported  to  have  said,  "The  reason  why  men  find 
it  hard  to  regard  prayer  in  the  same  light  in  which  it 
was  formerly  regarded  is  that  we  seem  to  know  more 
about  the  unchangeableness  of  law;  but  I  believe  that 
God  reveals  himself  in  each  individual  soul.  Prayer  is, 
to  take  a  mundane  simile,  like  opening  a  sluice  between 
the  great  ocean  and  our  little  channels  when  the  great 
sea  gathers  itself  together  and  flows  in  at  full  tide."1 
God  is  leading  us  by  the  very  revelation  of  the  laws  of 
nature  to  a  deeper,  truer  sense  of  our  relation  to  Him, 
and  so  to  a  deeper  and  truer  conception  of  the  meaning 
of  prayer.  We  begin  our  relations  with  God  as  children 
begin  their  relations  with  their  parents.  Our  prayers 
are  for  the  most  part  mere  requests  for  what  we  regard 
as  earthly  blessings.  We  importune  God  for  this  and 

1  Tennyson,  A  Memoir  by  His  Son,  vol.  i,  p.  324. 


308  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

that  as  children  importune  their  parents  for  everything 
they  want;  but  a  wise  father,  if  it  is  in  his  power,  gives 
his  child  what  his  wisdom  teaches  is  good  for  it  —  the 
long  discipline  of  education,  not  the  gratification  of  de- 
sires which  would  corrupt  the  child's  will  and  place  a 
barrier  in  the  way  to  its  long  journey  towards  perfection. 
As  the  child  grows  older,  it  appreciates  this  and  its  rela- 
tions to  its  parents  become  deeper  and  holier.  It  looks 
to  them  for  love,  for  strength,  for  wisdom,  for  guidance 
and  consolation.  Seeing  that  they  have  guided  it  well 
in  innumerable  instances  in  the  past,  the  child  has  faith 
in  them  for  the  present  even  if  they  withhold  many 
things  that  it  desires.  This  is  a  parable  of  the  growth 
of  our  spiritual  relations  with  God.  If  we  are  growing 
spiritually,  our  prayers  will  become  more  and  more 
spiritual,  though  this  by  no  means  implies  that  we  will 
ever  reach  the  point  where  we  may  not  seek  an  earthly 
good  from  God.  There  is  a  noble  reverence  for  God 
and  for  the  conditions  of  human  life  in  the  resolution  of 
Jonathan  Edwards:  "Resolved,  Never  to  count  that  a 
^prayer,  nor  to  let  that  pass  as  a  prayer,  nor  that  as  a  peti- 
tion of  a  prayer,  which  is  so  made  that  I  cannot  hope 
that  God  will  answer  it." 

So  far  we  have  almost  tacitly  assumed  that  the  effect 
of  prayer  on  the  soul  of  the  suppliant  is  its  only  real  re- 
sult. This  is,  however,  far  from  being  our  view.  The 
prayers  of  Mohammed,  dating  from  the  days  when  he 
communed  with  God  in  solitude,  have  changed  life  for 
hundreds  of  millions  of  our  fellow  men.  Huxley  was 
in  the  habit  of  saying  that  a  thought  could  no  more  pro- 
duce a  change  in  our  bodies  than  a  steam  whistle  could 


PRAYER  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE   309 

run  a  locomotive.  But  in  view  of  the  wonderful  cures 
effected  in  certain  diseases  by  strong  faith,  hope,  or  sug- 
gestion, no  experienced  physician  would  endorse  this 
dogmatic  statement  to-day.  Man's  will,  we  now  know, 
has  power  to  co-operate  with  God's  will  and  to  effect 
results  which  would  not  be  effected  were  either  factor 
canceled.  The  fundamental  dogma  of  modern  psychol- 
ogy is  the  unity  of  mind  and  body.  It  is  almost  impos- 
sible to  exaggerate  the  significance  of  this  fact  for  our 
present  discussion.  It  is  admitted  that,  as  all  the  higher 
religions  testify,  prayer  has  a  regenerating  and  uplifting 
effect  on  character;  but  in  affecting  character  it  must  also 
affect  the  nervous  system.  It  does  not  seem  irrational 
to  believe  that  prayer  opens  the  inner  consciousness  to 
the  absorption  of  spiritual  energy,  by  which,  as  philosophy 
assures  us,  the  universe  is  sustained.  And  this  attitude 
of  receptivity  toward  the  highest  things  in  turn  affects 
character  and  life,  and  the  calmed  and  purified  spirit 
acts  on  the  nervous  organization,  restoring  its  tone  and 
rhythm.  Of  course  the  more  earnest  the  prayer,  the  longer 
it  is  continued,  the  more  constantly  our  soul  goes  out  to 
God  in  one  direction,  the  more  that  prayer  is  likely  to 
prevail.  This  is  especially  true  in  praying  for  the  sick, 
especially  if  the  will  of  the  sick  man  can  be  aroused  to 
pray  for  himself.  Professor  James  says,  "As  regards 
prayers  for  the  sick,  if  any  medical  fact  can  be  consid- 
ered to  stand  firm,  it  is  that  in  certain  environments 
prayer  may  contribute  to  recovery  and  should  be  encour- 
aged as  a  therapeutic  measure."  Under  the  influence 
of  prayer  wonderful  recoveries  have  taken  place;  whereas 
it  is  well  known  that  when  men  become  demoralized  and 


310  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

lose  faith  and  hope  and  the  will  to  live,  they  frequently 
die  from  the  slightest  causes.  Many  examples  of  this 
latter  fact  occurred  in  hospitals  during  the  American  Civil 
War  and  in  times  of  epidemic.  Perhaps  the  most  re- 
markable example  of  the  power  of  prayer  in  sickness  is  that 
of  Luther  and  Melanchthon.  Prayer,  as  is  well  known, 
rescued  Melanchthon  from  the  jaws  of  death.  The  cause 
of  Melanchthon's  sickness  was  remorse  for  the  action 
which  he  and  Luther  had  taken  in  giving  a  modified  con- 
sent to  the  bigamist  marriage  of  Philip  of  Hesse.  At  Wei- 
mar he  became  so  ill  that  his  life  was  despaired  of  and 
Luther  was  sent  for.  A  contemporary  writer  describes 
the  scene.  "When  Luther  arrived  he  found  Melanch- 
thon apparently  dying;  his  eyes  were  sunk,  his  sense 
gone,  his  speech  stopped,  his  hearing  closed,  his  face 
fallen  in  and  hollow,  and  as  Luther  said,  '  Fades  erat 
Hippocralica.'  He  knew  nobody,  ate  and  drank  nothing. 
When  Luther  saw  him  thus  disfigured,  he  was  frightened 
above  measure  and  said  to  his  companions,  '  God  forfend, 
how  has  the  Devil  defaced  this  Organon!'  He  then 
turned  forthwith  to  the  window  and  prayed  fervently  to 
God.  .  .  .  Hereupon  he  grasped  Philip  by  the  hand: 
'Be  of  good  courage,  Philip,  thou  shalt  not  die;  give  no 
place  to  the  spirit  of  sorrow,  and  be  not  thine  own  mur- 
derer, but  trust  in  the  Lord,  who  can  slay  and  make  alive 
again,  can  wound  and  bind  up,  can  smite  and  heal  again.' 
For  Luther  well  knew  the  burden  of  his  heart  and  con- 
science. .  .  .  Then  Philip  by  degrees  became  more  cheer- 
ful and  let  Luther  order  him  something  to  eat  and  Luther 
brought  it  himself  to  him,  but  Philip  refused  it.  Then 
Luther  forced  him  with  these  threats,  saying,  'Hark, 


PRAYER  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE        311 

Philip,  thou  must  eat,  or  I  excommunicate  thee.'  With 
these  words  he  was  overcome  so  that  he  ate  a  very  little 
and  thus  by  degrees  he  gained  strength  again." x 

Once  more  —  we  dare  not  pray  to  God  to  work  a 
miracle,  that  is,  to  violate  one  of  those  general  laws  by 
which  He  rules  the  physical  world,  but  on  the  other  hand 
we  must  remember  that  it  is  difficult  at  times  to  decide 
what  does  or  does  not  violate  the  natural  order  of  the 
world.  Wherever  we  see  that  the  Divine  Will  has  clearly 
expressed  Itself,  piety  suggests  that  we  should  not  pray 
that  it  may  be  changed.  But  in  a  vast  majority  of  dis- 
eases, the  Divine  Will  is  not  unalterably  expressed.  Men 
do  not  die  with  a  regularity  and  certainty  observable, 
for  example,  in  the  phenomena  of  chemical  affinity.  If 
the  law  of  death  operated  like  a  law  of  dynamics,  it  would 
fall  outside  the  region  where  prayer  is  possible,  because 
to  effect  it  would  no  longer  be  the  wish  of  the  truly  pious 
man.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  it  does  not  so  oper- 
ate. In  any  given  case,  death  may  or  may  not  happen. 
Why,  then,  should  the  desire  for  the  recovery  of  a  sick 
person  be  forbidden  its  expression  in  prayer  to  Him 
who  is  the  Lord  of  Life  and  Death?  The  material 
world  is  affected  by  the  spiritual  world.  Thought 
and  will  and  emotion  are  constantly  producing  changes 
in  things  belonging  to  the  region  of  natural  science. 
Therefore,  we  ought  not  to  be  straitened  in  our  prayers 
through  any  nervous  fear  of  infringing  upon  the  laws  of 
nature.  Christ  lays  down  the  law  of  prayer:  "Whatso- 
ever things  ye  desire,  when  ye  pray,  believe  that  ye 

1  Seckendorf ,  History  of  Lutheranism,  vol.  iii,  p.  314;  quoted  by 
Richard,  Philip  Melanchthon,  p.  272  seq. 


312  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

receive  them,  and  ye  shall  have  them." '  This,  of  course, 
does  not  mean  that  prayer  is  a  species  of  magic  whereby 
we  can  gain  whatever  we  may  wish,  but  it  does  mean  that 
the  prayer  of  faith  is  a  reality  and  that  it  can  accomplish 
what  seems  impossible.  Prayer,  in  the  idea  of  Christ, 
puts  in  motion  a  power  which  operates  with  something 
of  the  certainty  with  which  a  natural  energy  acts.  We  can- 
not set  aside  as  a  delusion  the  experience  of  high-minded 
men  in  all  ages  who  testify  that  by  prayer  they  have  been 
enabled  to  rise  above  physical  weakness,  to  conquer  temp- 
tation, to  face  the  terrors  of  shipwreck  and  earthquake, 
and  to  meet  with  dignity  death  itself. 

The  prayer  of  faith  uttered  or  unexpressed  has  an  im- 
mense influence  over  the  functions  of  organic  life.  It  is 
significant  that  a  great  English  newspaper  in  an  article 
on  sleep  recommended  sufferers  from  insomnia  to  betake 
themselves  to  prayer.  The  advice  was  eminently  sound, 
for  in  true  prayer  the  mind  is  in  a  passive,  receptive  atti- 
tude. It  is  open  to  the  inflow  of  the  divine  forces  that 
bless  and  heal.  Now  the  great  hindrances  to  sleep  are 
worry,  anxiety,  remorse,  shame,  sometimes  the  fear  of 
not  sleeping.  Prayer  calms  and  soothes  the  soul,  lifts 
it  into  a  higher  region  than  the  earthly  and  thus  conduces 
to  the  state  in  which  sleep  becomes  possible.  Suppose 
now  that  our  whole  waking  life  were  to  be  lived  as  Christ's 
was  lived,  in  an  atmosphere  of  prayer,  that  is,  in  a  sense 
of  oneness  with  the  Infinite  Life,  the  Soul  of  our  souls, 
so  that  we  should  become  channels  through  which  the 
thought  and  love  of  God  might  have  unhindered  course. 
Must  not  the  body  so  closely  connected  with  the  soul  feel 

1  Mark  xi.  24. 


PRAYER  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE   313 

a  new  uplift  and  virtue?  This  is  especially  true  of  all 
nervous  disorders,  because  mind  has  special  relations  to 
the  brain  and  nervous  system. 

Our  view  of  prayer  will  be  influenced  by  our  concep- 
tion of  the  relation  in  which  we  stand  to  God.  If  we 
think  of  Him  as  some  far-off  Being,  with  whom  we  are 
only  externally  connected,  the  idea  of  prayer  is,  to  take 
a  homely  illustration,  like  calling  up  a  distant  person  on 
a  telephone,  making  known  our  wishes  and  then  waiting 
for  a  return  of  material  goods.  This  is,  of  course,  hope- 
lessly crude  and  materialistic.  But  if  we  grasp  the 
thought  that  we  are  organically  related  to  God,  that  we 
exist  in  Him  spiritually  somewhat  as  thoughts  exist  in 
the  mind,  we  can  see  that  a  strong  desire  in  our  soul  com- 
municates itself  to  Him  and  engages  his  attention  just 
as  a  thought  in  our  soul  engages  ours.  The  stronger  the 
thought,  the  more  frequently  it  returns,  the  more  it  is 
likely  to  be  acted  upon  unless  its  realization  should  be 
injurious.  Now,  every  impulse  of  the  soul  affects  the 
whole  consciousness,  and  so,  apart  from  any  outward  act, 
has  its  results  within.  Therefore  it  is  comforting  to  think 
that  no  strong  prayer  of  ours  can  be  in  vain,  that  it  rises 
in  the  consciousness  of  God,  and  if  it  is  good  becomes 
one  of  his  determining  motives.  When  in  prayer  we 
gather  up  all  the  forces  of  the  soul  in  a  pure  and  good 
desire  toward  God,  we  feel  the  effect  of  the  prayer  in 
character  and  in  life.  No  man,  therefore,  has  ever  truly 
prayed  in  vain.1  The  oftener  and  more  fervently  we  pray, 

1  Erskine  of  Linlathen,  a  Scottish  lawyer  and  theologian,  speaks  of 
'  'the  awful  silence  of  God."  Then  he  adds:  '  'But  it  has  not  always 
been  silence  to  me.  I  have  had  one  revelation.  After  it  I  did  not 


314  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

the  more  our  prayer  accomplishes,  though  we  do  not  ex- 
pect God  to  violate  His  own  gracious  will  at  our  bidding. 
He  resists  many  prayers  as  we  resist  many  thoughts,  and 
having  prayed,  let  us  accept  what  He  deems  best  to 
send. 

For  let  us  ask  what  does  the  truly  pious  man  desire 
when  he  prays?  Doubtless  he  desires  some  definite 
and  particular  boon  either  for  himself  or  for  another,  and 
for  the  moment  it  is  this  wish  that  occupies  the  center 
of  his  consciousness.  But  this  is  not  all.  As  Hermann 
says:  "A  prayer  which  contains  nothing  but  a  strong 
wish  for  an  earthly  blessing  and  the  notion  that  there 
is  a  power  which  may  be  moved  by  urgent  request  to  the 
fulfilment  of  the  wish,  is  not  genuine  prayer.  The  notion 
of  God  here  is  simply  the  prolongation  of  the  wish.  The 
man  never  gets  beyond  himself.  His  prayer  is  not  really 
addressed  to  God,  but  an  attempt  to  make  out  of  himself 
what  he  is  not  and  cannot  be."  1  There  is  another  ele- 
ment in  the  prayer  of  the  truly  pious  man  that  forms, 
so  to  say,  the  background  of  his  thought  —  a  desire 
which  at  first  is  not  explicit  but  is  nevertheless  present 
and  is  after  all  the  deepest  element  in  his  prayer.  He 
wishes  above  all  things  that  the  Divine  Will  should  be 
done,  because  he  believes  that  this  Will  is  perfectly  good. 
His  desire  for  some  particular  blessing  is  temporary, 
while  on  the  contrary,  longing  for  the  accomplishment 

know  anything  which  I  did  not  know  before.  But  it  was  a  joy  for  which 
one  might  brave  any  sorrow.  I  felt  the  power  of  love  —  that  God  is 
love  —  that  He  loved  me,  that  He  had  spoken  to  me,  and  then  after  a 
long  pause,  that  He  had  broken  silence  to  me."  —  Cf.  Inge:  Studies  of 
English  Mystics,  p.  78. 
1  Reakncyk.  Art.  Cebet. 


PRAYER  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE   315 

of  the  Divine  Will  is  permanent.  When  the  first  tur- 
bulent emotion  has  spent  itself,  the  soul  falls  back  upon 
the  eternal  will  of  God  and  finds  blessedness  in  resigna- 
tion to  this  Will.  Christ  never  showed  the  nobility  of 
His  soul  more  than  in  His  prayer  in  Gethsemane.  He 
offers 'his  agonizing  desire  to  the  Father:  "My  Father, 
if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  away  from  me,"  and 
then  He  recognizes  that  whether  it  passes  or  not,  the 
Father's  Will  is  good  — "  Nevertheless,  not  as  I  will, 
but  as  Thou  wilt."  1 

So  far  we  have  spoken  only  of  prayer  in  regard  to  our 
own  personal  needs  and  feelings.  A  few  words  must 
now  be  said  about  prayer  for  the  well-being  and  happi- 
ness of  others.  Whether  intercessory  prayer  can  be  vin- 
dicated by  reason  or  no,  it  answers  at  least  to  the  purest 
and  noblest  instincts  of  the  heart: 

"Pray  for  my  soul.    More  things  are  wrought  by  prayer 
Than  this  world  dreams  of.     Wherefore,  let  thy  voice 
Rise  like  a  fountain  for  me  night  and  day, 
For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats 
That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain, 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer 
Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend?"  2 

We  know  little  of  the  law  by  which  mind  acts  on  mind 
and  of  the  way  in  which  the  mind  of  man  can  affect  the 
mind  of  God,  but  in  view  of  the  fact  that  telepathy  is 
regarded  by  many  sane  and  sober  men  as,  if  not  actually 
proved,  at  least  exceedingly  probable,  he  would  be  a  rash 
man  who  would  deny  that  our  emotions  and  desires  ex- 
pressed in  prayer  can  reach  and  help  the  souls  of  others. 

1  Matthew  xxvi.  39.          a  Tennyson:  M orte  d  'Arthur,  lines  250-256. 


316  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

According  to  the  view  we  have  taken,  when  we  pray  long 
and  earnestly  for  the  moral  or  physical  welfare  of 
another,  our  soul  not  only  acts  on  that  soul,  but  our  prayer 
arising  in  the  mind  of  God  directs  his  will  more  power- 
fully and  more  constantly  to  the  soul  for  which  we  pray. 
It  may  be  said  that  the  will  of  God  is  ever  acting  for  the 
highest  happiness  of  all  his  creatures.  This  is  true,  and 
yet  He  may  so  have  ordered  the  world  that  our  prayer 
can  give  a  particular  direction  and  energy  to  His  will 
just  as  we  are  able  to  give  a  particular  direction  and  con- 
centration to  the  electrical  energy  that  penetrates  all 
space.  Moreover,  in  praying  for  the  spiritual  welfare 
of  another,  our  prayer  cannot  conflict  with  any  law  of 
nature.  If  the  person  for  whom  we  pray  knows  that 
we  are  constantly  praying  for  him,  the  effect  will  be 
greater,  because  his  spirit  will  more  easily  be  brought 
into  harmony  with  the  Spirit  of  God  and  our  spirit. 
Material  blessings  wrung  from  God  by  prayer  may  be 
viewed  with  suspicion,  but  no  heart  can  ridicule  the 
souls  won  to  Him  by  loving  desire.  If  you  have  prayed 
long  for  another  and  your  prayer  seems  to  have  accom- 
plished nothing,  do  not  despair,  your  prayer  has  certainly 
accomplished  something,  and  though  the  resistance  is 
great,  it  has  already  yielded  and  will  at  last  yield  alto- 
gether. After  praying  for  many  years  for  her  erring  son 
Augustine,  Monica  went  at  last  to  see  Archbishop  Am- 
brose and  told  him  of  her  despair.  Ambrose  comforted 
her  with  these  words:  "Woman,  go  in  peace.  The  child 
of  such  prayers  cannot  perish."  In  a  little  while  Monica 
had  the  pleasure  of  giving  one  of  its  greatest  saints  to 
the  Church. 


PRAYER  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE   317 

We  cannot  close  this  chapter  without  adding  a  few 
words  on  some  too  familiar  difficulties  of  prayer.  How 
many  sufferers,  especially  nervous  sufferers,  have  said  to 
us,  "I  cannot  pray,  my  faith  is  weak,  if,  indeed,  I  have 
faith  at  all.  It  seems  impossible  for  me  to  command  my 
thoughts,  to  pray,  believing  that  God  can  or  will  answer 
me."  Now  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  neurasthenia 
and  other  psychic  troubles  the  faculty  by  which  we  would 
commune  with  God  is  implicated  in  the  nervous  disturb- 
ance, is  in  a  morbid  state.  The  sufferer  should  bear  in 
mind  that  he  is  not  wholly  responsible  for  this  state  and 
that,  therefore,  God  will  not  demand  from  him  the  same 
amount  of  faith  as  he  would  expect  from  a  normal  mind. 
Therefore,  our  advice  is  to  be  patient  with  yourself. 
While  using  every  possible  means  to  regain  normal  self- 
control,  bear  patiently  with  a  temporary  eclipse  of  faith. 
Wait  "until  the  day  break  and  the  shadows  flee  away." 
Meantime,  the  overcharged  heart  will  find  relief  in  brief 
ejaculatory  and  pregnant  prayers  which  will  win  their 

way. 

"A  breath  that  fleets  beyond  this  iron  world 

And  touches  Him  who  made  it." 

But  still  more  important  is  the  reflection  that  there  is  a 
form  of  prayer  rich  in  blessing  to  the  nervous  and  the 
miserable.  This  has  been  long  known  in  the  Church  as 
contemplative,  or  meditative  or  passive  prayer.  It  consists 
not  in  offering  some  definite  request  to  Gcd,  but  in  sinking 
the  soul  in  Him,  in  the  union  of  the  finite  with  the  infi- 
nite. This  practice  is  as  old  as  religion  itself,  is  found  in 
all  the  higher  contemplative  rel'gions  as  well  as  among 
the  Quietists  and  Mystics.  It  has  formed  a  prominent 


318  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

part  of  the  devotions  of  the  earlier  Friends.  Passive 
prayer  is  possible  only  when  the  body  is  still,  placed  in 
such  a  posture  that  it  is  perfectly  relaxed  and  so  not  able 
to  distract  or  vex  the  mind.  Then  the  soul  is  absorbed 
in  the  thought  of  God,  His  presence,  His  power,  His 
peace,  so  that  for  the  time  being  all  other  feelings  are 
obliterated.  As  Falconi,  a  Spanish  mystic  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  writes:  "Establish  yourself  well  in  the 
presence  of  God;  and  as  it  is  a  faithful  truth,  that  His 
Divine  Majesty  fills  wholly  with  His  nature,  presence, 
and  power,  form  an  interior  act  of  faith,  and  be  strongly 
persuaded  of  this  important  truth.  Surrender  your- 
self into  His  paternal  hands,  abandon  your  soul,  life, 
interior  and  exterior,  to  His  most  holy  will  in  order  that 
He  may  dispose  of  you  according  to  His  good  pleas- 
ure and  service,  in  time  and  eternity.  That  done,  re- 
main in  peace,  repose,  and  silence;  as  a  person  who  no 
more  disposes  of  anything  whatever.  Do  not  think  vol- 
untarily of  anything  however  good  or  sublime  it  may  be; 
and  endeavor  only  to  remain  in  the  pure  faith  of  God  in 
general  and  in  the  resignation  that  you  have  made  to 
His  holy  will."  .  .  .  This  kind  of  prayer  "practices  the 
three  theological  virtues:  faith,  hope  and  charity — faith, 
because  it  believes  God  present,  hope,  because  it  expects 
from  Him  an  infinite  number  of  blessings  that  He  is  de- 
sirous of  granting  to  it,  ...  charity,  considering  that  it 
loves  God  ardently,  that  it  has  wholly  resigned  itself  into 
His  hands."  l  This  form  of  prayer  is,  as  we  have  said, 
especially  useful  for  the  nervous  sufferer;  first,  because  it 

1  Falconi :  The    Prayer  of  Silence    (translated    from    the    French), 
pp.  7-8. 


PRAYER  AND  ITS  THERAPEUTIC  VALUE        319 

produces  that  perfect  calm  which  is  so  good  for  agitated 
minds,  and  secondly,  because  it  seems  to  establish  some 
mystical  but  real  connection  between  the  soul  and  God's 
spiritual  forces.  Many  remarkable  cases  of  increase  of 
strength,  both  mental  and  physical,  have  been  known  to 
follow  prayer  offered  in  this  way,  especially  in  persons 
whose  minds  were  so  weak  that  they  could  not  profit  by 
conversation  or  by  any  effort  to  concentrate  the  mind  on 
anything  else: 

But  even  the  normal  soul  often  complains  of  the  inef- 
fectiveness of  prayer  through  want  of  faith.  There  are 
many  who,  as  Coleridge  says,  believe  that  they  believe; 
but  to  believe  really  is  to  act  as  if  the  belief  were  true. 
Here  comes  in  the  significance  of  the  will,  which,  as  mod- 
ern psychology  teaches,  is  of  central  importance  in  our 
moral  life.  What  is  wrong  with  these  souls  is  not  so 
much  want  of  faith,  as  want  of  will.  They  believe  the 
doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith,  but  they  are  unable  to 
commit  themselves  to  them.  Now  there  is  only  one  way 
in  which  we  can  learn  to  trust,  and  that  is  by  trusting. 
Therefore,  the  duty  of  the  man  who  feels  inert  and  in- 
capable of  rising  to  the  level  of  his  belief  is  to  arouse  him- 
self, to  appeal  to  his  will,  to  say  to  himself  again  and  again 
until  it  has  become,  as  it  were,  his  subconscious  posses- 
sion, "Trust  in  God  is  rational  and  right,  and  therefore 
trust  I  will." 


XVIII 

SUICIDE  AND   ITS  PREVENTION 

ONE  of  the  most  sinister  omens  of  our  time  is  the  alarm- 
ing growth  of  self-murder.1 

Everyday  observation  appears  to  confirm  the  depress- 
ing figures  of  the  statisticians.  Not  a  day  passes  but  the 
newspapers  report  successful  or  unsuccessful  attempts  at 
self-destruction;  the  popular  novel  reflects  the  promi- 
nent place  suicide  has  taken  in  the  modern  consciousness; 
the  ever-recurring  discussion  as  to  whether  and  under 
what  circumstances  suicide  is  ever  justifiable  points  in 
the  same  direction.  Here  is  a  state  of  matters  that  must 
challenge  the  attention  of  the  philanthropist,  the  min- 
ister of  religion,  the  psychologist,  the  educator  of  youth 

taking  the  period  1826-1890  it  has  been  shown  that  this  crime  dur- 
ing these  years  has  increased  in  Prussia  411  per  cent.,  in  France  385  per 
cent.,  and  in  Austria  318  per  cent.  If  we  confine  our  attention  to  Eng- 
land and  America  we  find  that  the  suicide  roll  for  the  entire  United 
States  mounts  up  from  3,932  in  1890  to  6,735  m  i9°o»  and  from  this 
point  it  advances  steadily  until  in  1907  we  have  the  appalling  total  of 
10,782.  When  all  due  allowance  has  been  made  for  increase  of  popu- 
lation, the  figures  disclose  a  sufficiently  painful  state  of  affairs.  Among 
those  v/ho  committed  suicide  in  the  United  States  in  1907  there  were 
no  less  than  1 10  persons  of  distinction,  as  educators,  bankers,  capitalists, 
artists,  merchants,  manufacturers,  corporation  officials,  clergymen,  and 
physicians.  The  Registrar  General  reports  2,205  m  England  and  Wales 
in  1890,  and  in  1905  the  number  swelled  to  3,545  — an  average  annual 
increase  of  85.  The  rate  per  100,000  of  the  population  was  in  1890 
seven,  and  in  1905  ten. 

320 


SUICIDE  AND  ITS  PREVENTION  321 

and  indeed  every  lover  and  helper  of  his  kind.  We  can- 
not shelve  the  problem  by  referring  it  to  the  alienist's 
province  on  the  assumption  that  suicide  is  a  symptom  of 
insanity.  Although  we  now  know  that  brain-disease, 
especially  melancholia,  often  leads  to  suicide,  there  is  no 
necessary  connection  between  the  two  so  that  the  suicide 
must  be  always  diagnosed  a  madman.  For  the  number 
of  suicides  in  different  countries  are  in  no  fixed  proportion 
to  the  number  of  the  insane.  Moreover,  insanity  is 
equally  common  among  men  and  women,  whereas  there 
is  only  one  female  to  every  three  male  suicides. 

Perhaps  the  most  pathetic  element  in  the  statistics  is 
the  increasing  prevalence  of  the  malady  among  children. 
M.  Proal  shows  that  in  1879  out  °f  5>II4  suicides  hi 
France  thirty-seven  were  under  sixteen  years  of  age,  and 
that  in  1902  out  of  a  total  of  8,716  the  children  numbered 
fifty-nine.  Professor  Eulenberg  of  Berlin  has  counted 
in  twelve  years  1152  child-suicides  in  Germany,  while 
the  high  schools  of  Russia  alone  supply  in  one  year  the 
appalling  total  of  337.  "Fifty  years  ago,"  says  Strahan, 
"child-suicide  was  comparatively  rare,  but  during  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century  it  has  steadily  increased  in  all 
European  states,  and  at  the  present  day  is  lamentably 
common  in  all."  *  This  increase  of  child-suicide  has 
also  been  pointed  out  by  G.  Stanley  Hall.  The  main 
causes  are  jealousy,  a  desire  to  be  revenged  on  some  one 
who  has  injured  or  insulted  the  youthful  suicide,  educa- 
tional overstrain,  the  failure  of  the  world  to  meet  the 
claims  made  upon  it.  The  child  commits  suicide  impul- 

1  Suicide  and  Insanity,  p.  174.  The  statistics  are  silent  as  to  juvenile 
suicide  in  the  United  States. 


322  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

sively,  never  deliberately:  the  unformed  mind,  swayed  by 
grief  or  pain  and  without  any  strong  realization  of  the 
meaning  of  life  and  death,  is  unable  to  inhibit  the  suicidal 
tendency.  The  blame  for  the  great  mass  of  child-suicide 
must  be  put  on  the  environment,  moral,  social,  and 
physical.  Constant  ill  treatment,  improper  diet,  inadequate 
sleep,  favoritism,  harsh  punishment,  lack  of  sympathy 
with  and  understanding  of  the  child  mind — these  create 
a  psychic  atmosphere  in  which  death  seems  preferable  to 
life.  With  the  removal  of  these  causes,  we  may  expect  to 
witness  a  great  diminution  of  this  heart-sickening  evil. 

In  young  manhood  and  young  womanhood  the  most 
frequent  cause  is  disillusion.  This  is  the  period  of 
life  when  hope  and  imagination  run  riot.  Anything  and 
everything  is  possible:  the  limitations  of  life  are  not  yet 
realized.  When  school-time  is  over  and  the  stern  real- 
ities of  the  world  have  to  be  faced,  the  youth  undergoes 
a  critical  and  sifting  experience.  "Many  feel  that  they 
are  inadequate  to  the  duties  of  life;  some  are  moreover 
worried  by  an  evil  conscience;  weakened  in  fact  or  fancy 
by  dissipation;  strained,  it  may  be,  by  having  to  pass 
through  the  stages  of  religious  readjustment  of  the  creed 
of  childhood;  find  life  tedious,  monotonous,  and  disap- 
pointing, and  are  thus  inclined  to  ennui  and  even  melan- 
choly. .  .  .  The  mind  has  been  cultivated  and  the  will 
weakened  by  inaction,  so  that  when  everything  depends 
upon  energy  it  collapses  in  despair.  As  the  demands  of 
life  become  complex  and  severe  with  advancing  culture 
and  civilization,  the  need  of  specialization  and  drudgery, 
this  breaking  into  the  harness  of  business,  profession,  and 
the  conventions  of  society  seems  unreal  or  cruel  fate, 


SUICIDE  AND  ITS  PREVENTION  323 

against  which  the  soul  rebels.  All  these  conditions  are 
copiously  illustrated  in  the  lives  of  adolescent  suicides, 
and  rare  is  the  earnest  soul  who  has  not  at  this  stage  at 
least  coquetted  with  thoughts  of  self-inflicted  death.  "  l 
Suicide  is  thus  a  sign  of  weakness,  of  relaxation  of  the 
moral  fiber,  and  its  growing  prevalence  indicates  that  there 
are  causes  at  work  which  are  slowly  sapping  the  forces 
of  national  character. 

What  are  some  of  these  causes? 

We  must,  of  course,  distinguish  between  the  irrational 
suicide,  the  unconscious  instrument  of  his  own  destruc- 
tion, and  the  genuine  suicide  who  consciously  and  with 
full  knowledge  of  the  consequences  of  his  act  violates 
"  the  canon  'gainst  self-slaughter."  We  are  not  here 
concerned  with  suicide  as  an  episode  in  the  history  of 
mania,  melancholia,  fixed  ideas  or  psychasthenic  im- 
pulse. The  causation  and  prevention  of  pathological 
suicide  belong  to  the  province  of  the  psychiatrist,  and 
with  the  advance  in  the  scientific  comprehension  of  in- 
sanity we  may  hope  for  a  mitigation  of  one  of  its  saddest 
phenomena.  On  the  other  hand  it  ought  to  be  noted  that 
such  an  authority  as  Morselli  traces  only  one  third  of  all 
suicides  to  brain  disease :  the  great  majority  are  referable 
to  causes  more  or  less  open  to  therapeutic  treatment. 

Durkheim  rejects  as  inadequate  all  purely  individual 
and  particular  causes  and  throws  the  whole  emphasis  on 
sociological  conditions.  In  the  first  place,  suicide  is  not 
hereditary.  What  can  be  inherited  is  a  temperament  or 
a  mental  disease  which  may  predispose  toward  without 
necessitating  self- killing.  Repeated  suicide  in  the  same 

1  G.  Stanley  Hall:  Adolescence,  vol.  i,  pp.  376  seq. 


324  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

family  can  be  accounted  for  by  the  law  of  imitation,  of 
suggestion  by  contagion  or  as  the  result  of  insanity. 
The  remembrance  or  the  spectacle  of  the  tragic  end 
of  his  relatives  becomes  in  the  suicide  the  source  of 
an  irresistible  impulse.  Behind  the  common  action 
lies  a  common  psychopathic  taint.  Again,  Morselli's 
theory  that  climate  has  an  effect  on  suicides  cannot  be 
proved.  Suicide  is  not  most  frequent  in  the  hot  months 
as  is  popularly  supposed.  The  fact  is,  it  increases  reg- 
ularly from  the  beginning  of  the  year  and  reaches  its 
maximum  not  in  the  hottest  months  but  in  the  month  of 
June,  from  which  point  it  gradually  decreases,  reaching 
its  minimum  in  December.  In  other  words,  suicide  in- 
creases with  the  increasing  length  of  the  day  because,  as 
the  day  grows  longer,  the  social  life,  the  currents  and 
cross-currents  of  human  relations  grow,  in  intensity.  For 
the  true  causation  of  suicide  we  are,  according  to  Durk- 
heim,  to  look  at  the  connection  of  society  with  the  individ- 
ual. From  this  point  of  view  we  discern  three  chief 
types,  (i)  The  "egoistic"  suicide.  In  this  class  vol- 
untary death  is  caused  by  the  relaxation  of  family,  social, 
and  religious  ties.  A  morbid  individualism  throws  off 
the  restraints  of  the  collective  life  of  the  household  or  the 
community.  The  statisticians  say  that  in  a  million  hus- 
bands with  children  there  are  205  suicides,  in  the  same 
number  without  children  there  are  470;  of  a  million  wives 
without  children  there  are  157  suicides,  with  children  45; 
of  a  million  widows  without  children  1004,  with  children 
526.  As  the  domestic  ties  are  relaxed,  suicide  mounts 
up.  So,  too,  with  the  national  life.  As  long  as  the  na- 
tional consciousness  lies  dormant  the  crime  of  self-murder 


SUICIDE  AND  ITS  PREVENTION  325 

is  frequent,  but  as  soon  as  the  spirit  of  patriotism  is  stirred, 
as  in  war  time,  men  are  taken  out  of  themselves  and  feel 
themselves  part  of  a  larger  whole,  with  the  result  that  life 
is  too  precious  to  be  gratuitously  flung  away.  The  same 
thing  is  true  of  the  pressure  on  the  individual  of  an  insti- 
tutional, dogmatic,  traditional  religion.  Here  solidarity 
takes  the  place  of  individualism.  Take  Ireland,  for 
example,  which  is  mainly  Roman  Catholic.  It  has  the 
honor  of  having  the  lowest  suicide  roll  among  all  civil- 
ized countries:  and  within  its  borders  Protestant  Ulster 
produces  two  suicides  for  every  one  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
provinces.  In  the  Protestant  countries,  Germany  and 
Scandinavia,  the  number  of  suicides  is  far  higher  than  in 
Italy  or  Spain,  the  rate  in  Germany  being  five  times  as 
great  as  that  in  Italy.  A  recent  writer  says  that  "this 
probably  points  to  the  dark  and  hopeless  Calvinistic  prin- 
ciples of  predestination,  and  also  to  the  need  of  guidance 
in  mental  disquietude,  the  divine  touch  of  human  sym- 
pathy, of  which  every  soul  at  some  time  is  in  need,  being 
met,  more  or  less  well,  by  the  system  of  confession."  1  A 
much  more  probable  explanation  is  that  Catholicism  is 
iar  more  strongly  "  intergrated "  than  Protestantism,  that 
in  the  former  the  collective  life  counts  for  more  than  in 
the  latter,  and  so  tends  to  suppress  the  individualism 
which  in  an  unhealthy  form  gives  birth  to  suicide.  There 
is  no  confessional  in  the  Jewish  communion,  yet  the  Jew 
is  as  little  disposed  to  suicide  as  the  Roman  Catholic. 
The  orthodox  Jew  also  finds  his  life  hedged  round  with 
minute  legal  observances  and  but  little  is  left  to  his  own 
judgment. 

1  International  Journal  of  Ethics,  vol.  xvi,  p.  179. 


326  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

(2)  The  "altruistic"  suicide.  Here  we  have  a  phe- 
nomenon the  exact  reverse  of  that  which  has  just  been 
described.  An  excessive  social  consciousness  as  well  as 
an  insufficient  sense  of  personality  may  lead  to  suicide. 
Among  primitive  peoples  where  the  tribal  consciousness 
swallowed  up  the  individual,  suicide  was  frequent.  And 
to-day  India  is  the  classic  land  of  suicide  permitted  through 
a  sense  of  religious  exaltation,  an  overstrained  feeling  of 
the  utter  nothingness  of  the  personal  as  compared  with  the 
universal  soul.  In  a  similar  way  is  to  be  explained  the 
high  rate  of  military  suicide.  The  soldier  is  a  mem- 
ber of  a  closely  organized  group;  he  holds  his  life  at  the 
service  of  others :  he  obeys  without  dispute :  and  this  moral 
and  intellectual  abnegation  tends  to  make  the  spirit  that 
is  the  natural  soil  of  altruistic  suicide.  (3)  The  "anomic" 
suicide.  This  type  is  the  creation  of  disturbances  in  the 
social  organism  whereby  social  control  gives  way  and 
individual  hopes  and  desires  overstep  the  limits  set  by 
circumstance  and  cannot  be  satisfied.  Great  individual 
or  financial  crises  whether  of  want  or  of  prosperity  are 
contemporaneous  with  an  increase  in  the  suicide  rate 
simply  because  they  are  crises,  perturbations  in  the  social 
order.  Men  are  no  longer  under  normal  rules  and  so  are 
hurried  by  their  lawless  feelings  into  suicide.  Then  again 
in  domestic  crises  such  as  the  death  of  husband  or  wife, 
or  the  fact  of  divorce,  we  find  suicide  increases  greatly.1 

Thus,  according  to  Durkheim,  we  are  to  look  for  the 
origin  of  suicide  in  social  causes  alone.  And  undoubtedly 
there  is  much  truth  in  this  contention.  Suicide  is  a  social 
fact  and  is  powerfully  affected  by  social  relations.  Yet  the 

1  Durkheim,  Le  Suicide,  pp.  149-154. 


SUICIDE  AND  ITS  PREVENTION  327 

theory  does  not  explain  the  whole  phenomenon.  For  the 
question  arises,  Why  does  one  individual  resist  the  social 
influence  and  another  succumb  to  it?  The  answer 
must  be  found  in  personal,  concrete,  particular  causes 
without  which  the  social  factors  are  an  inadequate  ex- 
planation. These  causes  in  the  main  are  alcoholism, 
worry  from  domestic  or  financial  trouble,  shame  and  fear 
of  disgrace,  boredom  or  weariness  of  life,  neurasthenia 
and  other  nervous  disorders,  insomnia,  crime,  extreme 
poverty,  incurable  disease,  frustrated  ambition,  and  dis- 
appointed love.  No  one  of  these  factors  by  itself  will 
account  for  the  increasing  suicide  rate:  they  act  and  re- 
act upon  each  other  and  form  a  malign  complex  which  it 
is  impossible  to  disentangle.  Hence  the  difficult  and 
intricate  nature  of  the  problem.  It  cannot  be  attacked 
from  one  side  only:  the  combined  forces  of  the  social 
reformer,  the  minister  of  religion,  the  schoolmaster,  and 
the  physician  must  be  directed  with  scientific  aim  against 
the  evil.  The  true  prophylactic  must  be  at  once  medical, 
philanthropic,  moral,  and  religious.  From  a  sociological 
standpoint  it  is  sad  to  reflect  that  with  all  the  increase  in 
wealth  and  comfort  which  the  nineteenth  century  has  wit- 
nessed, extreme  poverty  still  holds  millions  in  its  merci- 
less grip.  In  London,  according  to  Mr.  Charles  Booth, 
one  out  of  every  eight  persons  is  just  above  the  starvation 
line.  Without  home  and  without  friends  the  world  has 
few  attractions  for  the  man  who  is  tempted  to  quit  it. 
High  hi  the  scale  of  causation  must  be  placed  the  growing 
drug-habit.  Men  unable  or  unwilling  to  bear  patiently 
the  strains  and  stresses  of  business,  and  women  fretful 
and  petulant  under  domestic  cares,  become  the  victims 


328  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

of  "worry."  Hence  the  growth  of  a  neurotic,  disordered 
temperament  with  its  myriad  attendant  mischiefs.  Weak- 
ness, lack  of  self-control,  has  resort  to  those  pretended 
redeemers  from  misery,  alcohol,  morphine,  cocaine  and 
other  narcotics;  and  the  last  state  of  the  sufferer  is  worse 
than  the  first.  "The  unfortunate,"  says  Dr.  Saleeby, 
"seeks  to  drown  his  care  in  drink,  to  stifle  it  with  mor- 
phine, or  to  transmute  it  with  cocaine.  A  noteworthy  fact 
of  the  day  is  the  lamentable  increase  of  self -drugging,  not 
only  amongst  men  but  also  amongst  women  —  the  mothers 
of  the  race  that  is  to  be.  Alcohol  and  morphine  and 
cocaine,  sulphonal,  trional,  and  even  paraldehyde,  these 
and  many  other  drugs  are  now  readily  —  far  too  readily 
—  accessible  to  the  relief  of  worry  and  of  that  sleepless- 
ness which  is  a  symptom  of  worry  and  is  a  link  hi  the 
chain  of  lamentable  events  to  which  worry  leads.  These 
are  friends  of  the  falsest,  as  none  know  better  than  their 
victims.  Hence  borderland  cases,  misery,  suicide,  and 
death  incalculable."  1  And  again:  "year  by  year,  worry 
and  fear  and  fretting  increase  the  percentage  of  deaths 
that  are  self-inflicted  —  surely  the  most  appalling  of  all 
comments  upon  any  civilization." a  But  behind  these 
facts  lies  another  of  deeper  significance,  though  one  which 
does  not  appear  in  the  statistical  tables  —  the  weaken- 
ing of  hope  through  loss  of  faith  in  God  and  in  a  future 
life.  It  is  obvious  that  only  the  man  who  has  convinced 
himself  that  death  ends  all  can  risk  the  chance,  in  which 
so  many  of  his  fellow-men  believe,  that  it  does  not  end 
all,  and,  rather  than  bear  the  troubles  that  he  has,  prefers 
those  that  he  knows  not  of.  The  advance  of  science 

1  Worry,  p.   16.  *  Ibid.,  p.  10. 


SUICIDE  AND  ITS  PREVENTION  329 

which  while  diminishing  our  faith  in  God  increases  our 
fear  of  microbes,  the  practical  materialism  of  the  time 
which  regards  pleasure  the  greatest  good  and  pain  the 
worst  evil,  the  general  religious  unrest  created  in  part  by 
modern  criticism,  and  in  part  by  the  failure  of  ecclesias- 
tical Christianity  to  heal  the  deeper  sores  of  the  age  — 
these  forces  tend  to  sap  belief  in  a  life  beyond  the  grave. 
When  grief  or  misery  or  shame  befall  the  modern  man, 

"  Now  more  than  ever  seems  it  rich  to  die, 
To  cease  upon  the  midnight,  with  no  pain." 

If  society  is,  as  popular  writers  teach,  the  mere  pro- 
duct of  an  evolutionary  process  with  no  deeper  ground 
of  existence,  it  is  clear  that  the  would-be  suicide  cannot 
be  answered  when  he  asks:  "What  claim  has  society  upon 
me?  It  has  flung  me  aside  as  an  outcast,  a  hopeless 
derelict,  a  victim  to  a  blind  law  of  Survival  of  the  Fit  and 
Death  of  the  Unfit.  In  voluntarily  laying  down  my  life 
am  I  not  really  furthering  the  apparent  order  of  the 
world?"  But  as  long  as  the  individual  retains  a  living 
faith  in  God  he  knows  that  his  life  has  a  sanctity,  a  per- 
manent worth  quite  apart  from  the  attitude  of  society 
towards  him.  In  the  deepest  ground  of  his  being  he 
belongs  to  God,  and  on  the  basis  of  this  consciousness  he 
realizes  that  be  belongs  to  society  and  may  not  withdraw 
from  it  without  its  consent.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  how- 
ever, very  few  suicides  reason  deeply  about  their  taking 
off.  "Philosophic  suicides"  are  very  rare  in  our  time. 
Perhaps  the  latest  is  that  of  Weininger,  the  youthful 
genius  who  wrote  "Sex  and  Character"  in  which  he  strips 
humanity  of  its  last  vestige  of  the  ideal  and  exposes  it  in 


330  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

all  its  stark  and  naked  animalism.  After  finishing  the 
book  he  saw  no  reason  for  remaining  in  such  a  world 
and  blew  himself  out  of  it  by  means  of  a  bullet. 

In  view  of  what  has  been  said  it  is  clear  that  the  cur- 
rent proneness  to  suicide  can  be  greatly  reduced,  for  dis- 
cerning clearly  some  at  least  of  its  causes  we  can  attack 
and  modify  or  remove  them. 

i.  Our  age  is  marked  by  sympathy  with  pain  and  mis- 
ery. But  too  often  the  spirit  of  compassion  gives  birth 
to  a  pseudo-sentimentalism  which  in  the  long  run  is  more 
cruel  than  strict  justice.  In  a  proper  reaction  against 
the  barbarous  laws  of  an  earlier  time  dealing  with  suicide, 
we  have  gone  to  an  undue  extreme  of  leniency.  Cor- 
oner's juries  repeat  from  day  to  day  the  charitable  false- 
hood, "suicide  during  temporary  insanity,"  and  as  a 
result  the  deed  is  regarded  with  sympathy  rather  than 
with  horror,  and  others  on  the  brink  of  temptation  are 
encouraged  to  commit  the  rash  act.  Doubtless  juries  are 
influenced  by  consideration  for  the  grief  and  shame  of 
the  living,  but  they  are  the  spokesmen  of  the  law  and  of 
society  and  owe  a  duty  to  the  dead  as  well.  They 
should  help  to  build  up  in  the  public  mind,  and  especially 
in  the  thoughts  of  the  young,  a  dread  and  detestation  of 
the  crime  which  would  serve  well  the  despairing  and  the 
tempted  in  their  hour  of  need.  And  they  would  do  this 
if  they  abandoned  the  senseless  formula  in  vogue  and 
returned,  whenever  the  evidence  warranted  them  in  so 
doing,  to  the  older  verdict  of  Felo  de  se  with  a  rider  ex- 
pressing condemnation  of  this  "crime  against  oneself." 
It  has  been  recently  suggested  that  the  body  of  the  re- 
sponsible suicide  should  be  buried  at  midnight  in  silence. 


SUICIDE  AND  ITS  PREVENTION  331 

2.  But  legal  and  social  penalties  of  themselves  will  not 
cure  the  evil.  Suicide,  as  has  been  said,  is  generally  a 
sign  of  moral  weakness.  We  must  start,  then,  with  in- 
fusing into  our  educational  system  a  stronger  ethical 
tone.  The  notes  of  self-control,  of  duty,  of  self-abnega- 
tion must  be  struck  more  loudly  and  insistently.  A 
young  naval  officer  shortly  before  ending  his  life  writes 
to  his  parents:  "I  trust  I  shall  be  forgiven  for  the  great 
trouble  I  shall  bring  upon  all  of  you;  but  I  feel  I  cannot 
longer  live.  .  .  .  When  I  look  back  on  life  I  see,  that  if 
I  had  exercised  only  a  little  self-control,  I  should  never 
have  done  this."  1  In  the  great  majority  of  suicides  a 
defect  of  moral  training  in  youth  is  to  be  observed.  Hence 
Morselli  is  right  so  far  when  he  says  that  the  cure  lies  hi 
developing  hi  man  the  power  of  well-ordered  sentiments 
and  ideas  by  which  to  reach  a  certain  aim  hi  life;  in  short, 
to  give  force  and  energy  to  the  moral  character.  A  well- 
balanced,  reasonable  character  is  the  best  safeguard 
against  suicide.  Not  in  the  school  only,  but  in  the  home 
also,  is  this  to  be  formed.  It  is  within  the  power  of  the 
humblest  to  train  their  children  in  habits  of  poise,  of 
industry,  of  duty,  of  unselfish  service,  of  temperance  in 
eating  and  drinking,  of  total  abstinence  so  far  as  stimu- 
lants are  concerned.  And  this  is  done  by  example  even 
more  than  by  precept.  The  conscious  education  of  the 
child  is  by  no  means  the  whole  of 'his  training;  it  is  in 
the  sub-conscious  region,  as  modern  psychology  teaches, 
that  impressions,  memories,  thoughts  are  being  stored 
up  to  find  resurrection  at  a  later  day.  It  has  happened 
more  than  once  that  a  man  tempted  to  suicide  has  been 

*  Gurnhill:  Morals  of  Suicide,  vol.  i,  p.  144 


332  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

saved  by  the  sudden  flashing  up  from  the  depths  of  the 
sub-conscious  of  a  phrase  or  an  idea  or  the  remembrance 
of  a  long-forgotten  face  eloquent  of  goodness  and  pa- 
tience, and  he  has  turned  once  more  to  take  up  the  burden 
of  life.  We  know  now  that  the  most  fugitive  impressions 
leave  traces  on  the  child's  imagination.  The  psychic 
atmosphere  of  the  home  more  than  anything  else  shapes 
for  us  life  and  destiny. 

3.  Modem   psychology   has   shown   what   a   powerful 
role  suggestion  plays  in  life.     Man  has  been  denned  as  a 
"suggestible  animal".    And  perhaps  the  greatest  medium 
of  suggestion  is  the  newspaper.    There  are  many  weak 
individuals  who  take  their  standards  of  action  from  the 
popular  prints:  and  when  they  read  the  pathetic  story 
of  some  unfortunate  self-destroyer  with  minute  and  sen- 
sational description  of  the  pistol,  the  rope  or  the  poison 
with   which   the   tragic   deed    was   consummated,   their 
vanity  is  fired  and  they  too  would  win  the  pity  and  the 
notoriety  such  a  death  attracts.    The  fixed  idea,  the  domi- 
nant thought,  often  ends  in  a  mad  deed.    This  is  a  com- 
monplace of  mental  pathology.     Every  newspaper  should 
simply  publish  a  suicide's  obituary  giving,  as  in  the  ordi- 
nary "Deaths"  column,  name,  date  of  death,  age  and 
place  of  residence.    Still  further,  newspaper  editors  who 
rise  to  the  dignity  of  their  calling  as  molders  of  public 
opinion  should,  as  opportunity  offers,  seek  to  raise  the 
tone  of  popular  thinking  in  this  matter  by  showing  the 
anti-social  character  of  the  crime  and  by  calling  atten- 
tion to  those  tendencies  in  the  body  politic  that  make  for 
its  occurrence. 

4.  The  social  reformer  can  do  much  to  stem  the  tide 


SUICIDE  AND  ITS  PREVENTION  333 

of  moral  and  physical  degeneration  of  which  suicide  is 
merely  a  symptom.  All  drugs,  stimulating  and  narcotic, 
should  be  made  more  difficult  of  access.  Take  alcohol, 
for  example.  It  is  now  established  beyond  question  that 
there  is  a  close  relationship  between  drunkenness  and 
suicide.  Denmark,  with  the  highest  consumption  of 
alcohol,  has  the  highest  -  death-rate  from  suicide.  In 
Switzerland,  from  one  fourth  to  one  third  of  the  sui- 
cides, in  various  provinces  of  France  from  one  fifth  to 
one  third,  and  in  Belgium  one  third  are  referred  to  alco- 
holism. The  only  country  in  Europe  with  a  declining 
suicide  rate  is  Norway,  and  it  is  significant  that  in  the 
same  country,  owing  to  the  operation  of  the  Gothenburg 
system,  there  is  a  declining  rate  of  consumption  of  alcohol 
per  head.  One  of  the  crying  social  needs  of  the  time,  es- 
pecially in  England  and  America,  is  temperance  reform. 
The  powerful  organization  of  the  liquor  trade  is  a  menace 
to  the  well-being  of  the  people,  subordinating  as  it  does 
larger  national  questions  to  its  own  requirements.  As 
Lord  Rosebery  has  said:  "If  the  State  does  not  soon 
control  the  liquor  traffic,  the  liquor  traffic  will  control  the 
State."  In  America  the  saloon  system  as  a  whole  is  a 
moral  plague.  All  the  forces  that  make  for  suicide  are 
entrenched  behind  it  and  appear  to  defy  the  utmost 
efforts  of  civilization  and  philanthropy.  The  weakness 
of  temperance  advocates  lies  in  their  dissension:  each 
party  cries  up  its  own  panacea  and  has  no  patience  with 
other  points  of  view.  They  must  close  up  their  ranks  on 
some  practical  basis  of  union,  however  far  short  of  the 
ideal  such  a  basis  may  be;  and  they  must  devise  some  sub- 
stitute for  the  saloon  and  public-house  which  at  present 


334  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

act  as  centers  of  natural  and  necessary  social  intercourse. 
There  are  other  social  problems  demanding  solution.  The 
poorer  districts  of  our  large  cities  give  the  greatest  con- 
tribution to  the  suicidal  list.  Hence  the  need  for  sani- 
tary and  hygienic  measures,  the  establishment  of  free 
gymnasiums  and  baths,  the  better  housing  of  the  poor, 
in  a  word,  for  the  humanizing  and  uplifting  of  the  masses 
sunken  in  squalor  and  physical  wretchedness. 

5.  The  teacher  whether  by  pen  or  by  voice  will  do  well 
to-day  to  emphasize  the  folly  of  suicide.  A  good  dinner, 
a  few  hours'  sleep,  an  offer  of  employment,  a  few  sympa- 
thetic words,  will  often  change  a  man's  psychological  cli- 
mate and  raise  him  from  the  depths  of  despair  to  the 
heights  of  hope  and  expectation.  He  is  indeed  foolish 
who  permits  himself  to  be  the  victim  of  an  impulse  so 
easily  vanquished.  Even  on  a  purely  utilitarian  view  of 
existence  the  self-slayer  is  guilty  not  so  much  of  a  crime 
as  of  a  colossal  blunder.  He  throws  away  the  whole  for 
a  part.  Is  life  a  game  in  which  the  chances  have  gone 
against  him?  He  is,  in  quitting  the  game,  committing 
an  act  which  is  stupid  and  shortsighted.  For  if  only  he 
keeps  a  stout  heart  and  refuses  to  surrender  to  the  impulse 
of  the  coward,  he  may  turn  his  misfortune  into  a  means 
of  ultimate  gain. 

6.  Has  Christianity  any  message  to  the  intending 
suicide?  Up  till  now  the  Church,  as  the  official  expo- 
nent of  Christianity,  has  contented  herself  with  denounc- 
ing suicide  as  a  crime  and  imposing  varying  ecclesiastical 
penalties.  But  we  now  know  that  there  are  moral  and 
psychical  causes  of  the  crime  which  it  is  the  task  of  the 
Church  to  help  ameliorate  or  remove.  Men  are  discour- 


SUICIDE  AND  ITS  PREVENTION  335 

aged  and  fear  more  than  they  hope.  In  the  early  Chris- 
tian ages  it  was  this  discouragement  that  found  comfort 
and  consolation  in  the  Gospel  of  the  Nazarene,  and  as 
Christianity  gained  the  mastery  of  the  Roman  Empire 
suicide  almost  wholly  disappeared.  Has  religion  any 
power  to  hold  back  the  hand  of  the  suicide  to-day  ? 

In  many  instances  the  real  root  of  the  mischief  lies  in 
the  moral  region.  Perhaps  it  is  an  enslaving  vice,  a 
cowardly  fear,  a  lost  faith,  a  nervous  collapse  and  fruit 
of  shame  or  worry  or  disgrace.  Such  suffering  should 
find  sympathy  and  consolation  at  the  hands  of  the 
Christian  minister.  He  ought  to  be  able  to  soothe  the 
harassed  spirit,  to  bring  peace  to  the  conscience,  to  kin- 
dle hope,  to  create  faith,  to  dispel  all  that  is  evil,  inju- 
rious, and  inharmonious  in  the  sufferer's  life  and  mind. 
Equipped  with  the  deeper  insight  into  the  nature  of  the 
soul  and  its  relations  to  the  nervous  system  which  psy- 
chology has  given  him,  it  is  his  to  dissipate  the  clouds 
of  distress  and  discouragement  with  the  breath  of  a 
vital  faith  and  a  boundless  optimism.  The  Founder  of 
Christianity  was  not  only  the  greatest  of  teachers:  He 
was  also  an  ever-successful  physician.  Unhappily  His 
followers  not  knowing  what  to  make  of  his  healing 
ministry  for  the  most  part  ignored  it.  With  the  re- 
covery of  this  new  thing  which  Christ  brought  with  him 
into  the  world,  the  moral  misery  that  makes  suicide  pos- 
sible cannot  live.  Never  was  the  world  more  ready  than 
to-day  to  hear  the  word  of  a  religion  that  has  power,  and, 
hearing,  to  obey.  For  men  dimly  surmise  that  in  the 
spiritual  realm  there  are  healing  and  reconciling  forces, 
and  in  blind  enough  ways  are  earnestly  trying  to  grasp 


336  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

and  utilize  them.  There  are  deep  instincts  in  man  which 
rebel  against  a  Gospel  of  despair.  We  see  them  at  work 
in  the  creations  of  new  religions  such  as  Christian  Sci- 
ence, New  Thought,  Spiritualism  and  so  forth,  in  the  wide- 
spread revolt  against  materialism  in  philosophy  and  in 
medical  science,  and  in  the  strange  fascination  which 
oriental  theosophic  speculations  are  exercising  over  the 
practical-minded  Englishman  and  American.  It  is  not 
the  fault  of  Christianity  but  of  its  popular  exponents  and 
interpreters  that  so  many  are  turning  away  from  the  his- 
toric creed  of  Christendom  to  the  latest  quasi-metaphys- 
ical systems  —  arms  that  are  shortened  and  cannot  save. 
The  need  of  the  hour  is  the  advent  of  prophetic  spirits 
who  will  unveil  to  the  eyes  of  their  contemporaries  the 
hidden  resources  of  the  Christian  Gospel  and  will  show 
this  faith  to  be  the  one  impregnable  barrier  against  the 
inroads  of  pessimism  and  despair.  In  the  light  of  mod- 
ern science  and  more  especially  of  psychological  science, 
the  great  truths  of  Christ  —  a  God  truly  personal  and 
able  to  hold  fellowship  with  the  creatures  of  his  hand,  the 
imperishable  worth  of  the  soul,  the  organization  of  human 
life  into  a  veritable  Divine  Kingdom  on  earth,  —  take 
on  new  and  profounder  meaning,  and  yet  await  practical 
application  to  the  actual  needs  and  the  standing  discour- 
agements of  humanity.  Around  these  great  ideas  lie 
the  perspective  of  the  infinite.  Because  of  them  human 
life  is  seen  to  have  issues  that  pass  beyond  time  and  place. 
Faith  in  God  and  in  His  purposes,  a  healthy  reverence  for 
what  unimagined  mysteries  and  experiences  may  lie  behind 
the  veil,  are  the  forces  that  will  stand  a  man  in  good  stead 
when  overcome  by  misfortune  or  tempted  by  cowardice. 


SUICIDE  AND  ITS  PREVENTION  337 

"  Brutus  and  Cato  might  discharge  their  souls 
And  give  them  furlough  for  another  world, 
But  we  like  sentries  are  obliged  to  stand 
In  starless  nights,  and  wait  the  appointed  hour."1 

1  Should  the  reader  be  tempted  to  think  that  the  suggestions  in  this 
chapter  are  visionary  and  unpractical,  he  is  asked  to  study  the  Report 
for  1907  of  the  Salvation  Army  Antisuicide  Bureau,  from  which  he  will 
see  that  some  of  these  ideas  have  been  applied  with  singular  success. 
During  1907  about  2,250  men  applied  to  the  bureau:  of  these  "it  would 
be  safe  to  say  that  75  per  cent,  have  been  diverted  from  the  commission 
of  the  rash  act  they  had  contemplated,  and  been  helped  either  out  of, 
or  through,  or  on  to  the  top  of  their  circumstances.  A  few  persons  have 
set  our  counsels  at  naught  and  have  perished.  The  remainder  are  pos- 
sibly contemplating  the  act  of  self-destruction  to-day."  Among  the 
applicants  to  the  bureau  were  clergymen,  physicians,  military  officers, 
lawyers,  journalists,  architects,  company  promoters,  schoolmasters,  actors, 
chemists,  hotel  proprietors,  and  general  tradesmen.  Very  few  of  the  most 
degraded  and  outcast  classes  applied  for  help. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  HEALING   WONDERS  OF  CHRIST 

IN  the  history  of  the  Founder  of  Christianity  as  re- 
corded in  the  Gospels,  we  find  attributed  to  Him  certain 
wonderful  or  miraculous  deeds.  From  the  second  century 
to  the  present  time  these  achievements  have  excited  in 
some  grave  scepticism,  whereas  in  the  case  of  others 
they  have  -met  with  enthusiastic  acceptance.  Their 
appearance  in  the  Gospel  narrative  have  led  rationalistic 
writers  to  doubt  the  veracity  of  the  Gospel  story,  and  the 
enlightened  Christian  of  to-day  often  feels  them  rather  a 
burden  than  a  help  to  faith.  Nevertheless  the  general 
historical  trustworthiness  of  the  first  three  Gospels  is  one 
of  the  most  assured  results  of  modern  criticism.  Although 
secondary  elements  are  not  wholly  absent  from  these 
narratives,  and  although  echoes  of  the  Old  Testament 
are  not  infrequently  audible  in  them,  yet  to  resolve  the 
whole  history  into  a  series  of  mythical  recitals  modeled 
on  Old  Testament  originals  after  the  manner  of  Strauss 
is  far  from  the  thought  of  serious-minded  scholars  to-day. 
Though  the  threefold  cord  sometimes  shrinks  to  a  single 
strand,  though  St.  Luke  in  particular  has  incorporated 
narratives  as  to  whose  origin  at  present  we  can  only 
conjecture,  yet  the  glad  conviction  has  gained  ground 
that  in  these  exquisite  and  unstudied  narratives  we  have 
a  generally  faithful  picture  of  the  life  and  the  death  of 

338 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF   CHRIST  339 

the  Son  of  Man.  The  judgment  of  Harnack  may  be 
taken  as  embodying  the  conclusions  of  the  best  New 
Testament  scholarship  of  our  time.  "The  unique  char- 
acter of  the  Gospels,"  he  says,  "is  universally  recognized 
by  criticism  to-day.  .  .  .  The  Greek  language  lies  only 
like  a  transparent  veil  upon  these  writings,  the  contents 
of  which  can  with  a  slight  effort  be  translated  back  into 
Hebrew  or  Aramaic.  That  we  have  here  in  the  main  a 
first-hand  tradition  is  indisputable." 1  Now  embodied 
in  the  substance  of  these  Gospels  is  the  record  of  Christ's 
deeds.  The  deep  impression  He  produced  upon  His 
contemporaries  is  consistently  represented  as  effected  by 
His  mighty  works  as  well  as  by  His  words,  and  these 
miracles  are  not  like  the  trifling  and  immaterial  acts 
ascribed  to  Him  in  the  Apocryphal  gospels,  but  are  worthy 
expressions  of  the  gracious  character  of  their  Author. 
So  closely  are  most  of  these  stories  interwoven  with  the 
most  probable  incidents  of  His  life,  so  supported  are  they 
by  His  authentic  words,  so  sustained  by  direct  and  in- 
direct evidence  of  every  sort,  that  to  tear  them  from  the 
Evangelical  narratives  would  be  to  renounce  definitively 
and  forever  the  hope  of  any  real  knowledge  of  the  life  of 
Jesus.  In  view  of  the  impossibility  of  creating  in  sim- 
plicity and  propriety  such  situations  as  frequently  con- 
front us  in  the  miracles  recorded  in  these  Gospels,  we  may 
even  boldly  take  up  David  Hume's  challenge  and  affirm 
that  the  invention  would  be  more  miraculous  than  the 
miracle.  Not  only  His  friends  but  also  His  enemies 

1  Das  Wesen  des  Christentums,  pp.  14, 15.  We  do  not  use  the  Gospel 
of  St.  John  as  a  source  because  it  stands  by  itself  and  offers  so  many 
unsolved  problems. 


340  RELIGION  AND   MEDICINE 

admitted  His  power  to  work  wonders.  As  He  hung  upon 
the  cross,  the  taunt  flung  at  Him  was  also  an  unconscious 
tribute:  "He  saved  others,  Himself  He  cannot  save."1 
His  power  was  maliciously  ascribed  to  Beelzebub,  though 
later  opponents  supposed  that  He  gained  it  through  some 
occult  knowledge  acquired  in  Egypt.  As  to  Christ's 
own  claim  there  can  be  no  mistake.  His  message  to 
Herod  is  plain,  "  Behold,  I  cast  out  devils  and  I  do  cures."2 
There  were  two  classes  that  lay  close  to  the  heart  of  Christ 
—  the  poor  and  the  sick.  In  the  great  Judgment  scene 8 
He  identifies  Himself  for  all  time  with  these  classes.  "I 
was  hungry  and  ye  gave  me  to  eat.  ...  I  was  sick  and 
ye  visited  Me."  He  conceives  of  His  mission  as  that  of 
a  physician,  a  Healer  of  the  souls  and  bodies  of  men. 
"They  that  are  whole  have  no  need  of  a  physician  but 
they  that  are  sick."  4  And  the  judgment  which  He  pro- 
nounces upon  the  cities  by  the  lakeside  implies  His  won- 
der working  activity:  "Woe  unto  thee  Chorazin!  Woe 
unto  thee  Bethsaida!  For  if  the  mighty  works  had  been 
done  in  Tyre  and  Sidon  which  were  done  in  you,  they 
would  have  repented  long  ago  in  sackcloth  and  ashes." 5 
And  yet  He  never  proposed  His  ability  to  work  miracles 
as  a  proof  of  His  divine  mission,  but  invariably  declined 
such  a  challenge,  stigmatizing  it  as  a  solicitation  of  an 
evil  and  adulterous  generation  and  enjoining  silence  on 
those  whom  He  had  restored.  He  recognized  that  others 
could  cast  out  demons  and  He  admitted  that  false  Mes- 
siahs could  perform  wonderful  works,  declaring  that  a 

1  Mark  xv.  31.  *  Luke  xiii.  32. 

*  Matthew  xxv.  31-46.  «  Mark  ii.  17. 

•Matthew  xi.  20-21. 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF  CHRIST         341 

tree  is  known  by  its  fruit,  not  by  these  showy  blossoms, 
and  that  character  is  the  only  proof  that  one  is  sent  by  God. 
In  short,  His  miracles,  though  frequent,  were  with  Him 
a  secondary  matter.  As  a  rule,  they  were  almost  forced 
from  Him  by  man's  distress.  His  business  on  earth  was 
to  reveal  God  and  to  found  His  kingdom.  The  sign  he 
offered  to  His  contemporaries  was  the  old  sign  of  the 
prophet  Jonah  whose  preaching  was  believed  by  the 
Ninevites. 

The  miracles  of  Jesus  are  usually  grouped  under  four 
heads:  (i)  Ordinary  acts  of  healing.  (2)  The  expulsion 
of  demons.  (3)  The  raising  of  the  dead.  (4)  The  so- 
called  nature  miracles.  We  here  concern  ourselves  only 
with  thex  first  two  of  these  groups.  In  doing  this  we  are 
not  to  be  understood  as  throwing  doubt  upon  the  other 
types  of  miracle,  much  less  rejecting  them.  For  the  pres- 
ent we  set  them  aside  because  as  yet  we  are  unable  to 
find  in  our  experience  a  point  of  contact  with  them.  A 
miracle,  if  it  is  to  meet  with  acceptance  at  the  hands  of 
modern  men,  must  be  shown  to  have  some  analogy  with 
facts  and  phenomena  within  their  knowledge.  Those 
of  which  this  cannot  be  shown  are  by  no  means  to  be 
rejected.  They  are  simply  to  be  reserved  to  the  day  of 
fuller  light.  It  would  be  rash  to  suppose  that  all  the 
light  possible  in  this  matter  has  been  vouchsafed  us.  The 
rationalistic  criticism  of  fifty  years  ago  rejected  the  heal- 
ing wonders  of  Christ.  Fuller  knowledge  enables  us  to 
smile  at  the  sceptical  dogmatism  of  this  criticism.  Why 
may  it  not  be  that  the  knowledge  of  fifty  years  hence  will 
be  able  to  make  intelligible  some  of  the  narratives  on 
which  faith  stumbles  to-day? 


342  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

Confining  our  attention  then  to  the  healing  aspect  of 
our  Lord's  ministry,  what  light  has  modern  medical 
science  to  throw  upon  it?  Every  one  has  learned  to 
recognize  the  reality  of  spiritual  phenomena,  the  inter- 
dependence of  soul  and  body,  the  effect  of  psychical  states 
on  physical  states.  There  exists  now  in  the  archives  of 
medicine,  as  Professor  Osier  in  his  review  of  the  progress 
of  medicine  during  the  nineteenth  century  admits,  a  vast 
mass  of  trustworthy  material  testifying  to  the  reality  of 
cures  effected  or  facilitated  by  other  than  physical  means. 
Many  persons  discouraged  by  the  difficulty  of  establishing 
a  rational  theory  to  account  for  these  cases,  or  shocked  by 
the  absurd  pretensions  of  those  who  claim  to  possess  power 
to  effect  such  cures,  decline  to  enter  this  obscure  border 
land  of  science,  and  prefer  to  ignore  the  whole  subject. 
Yet  that  domain  exists  and  to  it  presumably  belong 
the  miracles  of  healing  ascribed  to  Christ  and  to  His 
apostles.  In  this  region  personality  counts  for  much,  as 
every  psychologically  trained  physician  is  aware.  From 
time  to  time  through  the  centuries  men  have  arisen 
endowed  with  a  peculiar  power  to  dispel  the  moral  and 
physical  maladies  of  their  fellowmen.  Among  these, 
"the  First  among  many  brethren,"  stands  the  Lord  Jesus, 
the  Great  Physician.  Of  Him  it  was  said  that  He  taught 
and  healed.  Co-ordinating  His  cures  with  others  that 
have  been  wrought  in  ancient  and  modern  times,  we  obtain 
a  new  se,nse  of  the  nature  and  reality  of  His  mighty  works 
that  removes  them  from  the  stifling  atmosphere  of  the  old 
supernatural  vacuum  and  gives  them  a  place  under  the 
starry  heavens  and  among  the  mysterious  forces  of  God's 
universe. 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF  CHRIST         343 

In  approaching  a  closer  examination  of  Christ's  ther- 
apeutic work,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  much  uncertainty 
must  attend  our  effort.  The  sources  from  which  we  get 
our  information  are  admittedly  fragmentary.  They  were 
written  by  simple  and  prosaically-minded  men.  They 
have  no  pretensions  to  be  scientific  biographies,  but  are 
rather  broken  and  somewhat  disjointed  memoirs.  And 
still  more  important  for  our  purpose  is  the  reflection  that 
the  diagnoses  of  the  troubles  cured  are  popular  in  charac- 
ter and  are  therefore  vague  and  ambiguous.  On  the 
other  hand,  bearing  in  mind  the  uniqueness  of  Christ's 
personality  and  our  own  ignorance  of  the  limits  to  the 
influence  of  mind  over  body,  we  will  do  well  to  avoid  all 
hasty  dogmatism  as  to  what  would  be  possible  or  not  pos- 
sible to  such  a  one  as  Christ.  Schmiedel  regards  as  his- 
torical "only  those  of  the  class  which  even  at  the  present 
day  physicians  are  able  to  affect  by  psychological 
methods."1  But  the  best  physicians  to-day  admit  that 
their  studies  are  only  at  the  beginning,  that  the  dark 
border  land  of  body  and  soul  is  still  for  the  most  part 
unexplored,  and  that  when  it  is  explored  sufficiently 
startling  discoveries  will  be  made. 

In  order  that  we  may  understand  the  significance  of 
Christ's  healing  ministry,  a  few  words  must  be  said  as  to 
the  state  of  medical  science  in  the  Palestine  of  His  day. 
That  there  was  no  lack  of  physicians  at  that  time  and 
place  we  learn  from  the  story  of  the  woman  with  an 
issue  of  blood.  "  She,"  we  are  told,  "  had  suffered  many 
things  of  many  physicians  and  had  spent  all  she  had 
and  was  nothing  better  but  rather  grew  worse."  Luke, 

1  Article  Gospels  in  Encyclopedia  Biblica. 


344  RELIGION  AND   MEDICINE 

being  a  physician,  could  not  tolerate  this  reflection  of 
Mark's  on  the  medical  profession  and  so  he  quietly  drops 
this  remark  about  the  clumsy  ignorance  of  the  doctors.1 
Greek  medical  knowledge  had  scarcely,  if  at  all,  affected 
the  rabbinical  views  of  disease.  In  spite  of  the  teaching 
of  the  Book  of  Job,  the  orthodox  opinion  was  that  every 
sickness  argued  some  sin,  secret  or  open,  on  the  part  of  the 
sick  person.2  Such  a  feeling  of  course  only  deepened  the 
misery  of  the  sufferer.  In  addition  to  this,  the  doctrines 
of  demons  had  been  elaborately  developed  and  these  evil 
spirits  were  supposed  to  be  at  work  behind  all  forms  of 
illness,  but  more  especially  in  that  particular  form  which 
went  by  the  name  of  demon  possession.3  Even  St.  Paul 
could  not  shake  himself  free  from  this  Jewish  notion,  for 
he  speaks  of  his  thorn  in  the  flesh  as  a  messenger  of  Satan.4 
With  such  ideas  it  was  no  wonder  that,  as  Bousset  says,  the 
physician  pursued  his  craft  with  all  manner  of  remedies 
possible  and  impossible,  good  and  bad,  sometimes  by 
proper  means,  more  often  with  all  the  devices  of  quackery, 
faith  healing  and  magic,  with  utterings  of  the  mysterious 
name  of  God  and  even  of  the  religious  method  of  prayer."8 
And  yet  occasionally  some  of  these  crude  doctors  advo- 
cated methods  that  curiously  foreshadow  the  therapeutics 
of  to-day.  In  the  Talmud,  for  example,  a  woman  suffer- 
ing from  an  issue  of  blood  is  told  to  seat  herself  at  the 
crossroads  and  to  cry  aloud,  "Let  thine  issue  of  blood 
be  stopped "  —  an  ancient  example  of  the  modern  theory 
of  auto-suggestion. 

1  Cp.  Mark  v.  26  and  Luke  viii.  23.  *  Cp.  John  ix.  i. 

»Cp.  Mark  ix.  17,  Luke  ix.  38,  Luke  xiii.  n. 

4 II  Corinthians  xii.  7.  *Jtsus,  p.  47. 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF  CHRIST         345 

The  scope  and  range  of  Christ's  therapeutic  activity 
is  worth  noting.  In  the  triple  tradition  —  the  material 
common  to  the  first  three  Evangelists  —  we  have  the 
record  of  eleven  miraculous  deeds  and  of  these  nine  are 
acts  of  healing.  The  diseases  cured  are  as  follows:  (i) 
fever;  (2)  leprosy;  (3)  paralysis;  (4). a  withered  hand; 
(5)  demoniacal  possession;  (6)  uterine  hemorrhage;  (7) 
reanimation  at  the  point  of  death;  (8)  epilepsy;  (9) 
blindness.  In  addition  to  specific  cures  we  have  a  num- 
ber of  summarizing  notices  of  Christ's  healing  ministry. 
For  example,  we  are  told  that  when  He  was  in  Capernaum, 
"  they  brought  unto  Him  all  that  were  sick  and  them  that 
were  possessed  with  demons,  and  He  healed  many  that 
were  sick  with  diverse  diseases  and  cast  out  many  demons."1 
And  again  we  are  told  that  "  a  great  multitude  from  Gal- 
ilee followed  and  from  Judaea  and  from  Jerusalem  and 
from  Idumasa  and  beyond  Jordan  and  about  Tyre  and 
Sidon.  .  .  for  He  had  healed  many  in  so  much  that  as 
many  as  had  plagues  pressed  upon  Him  that  they  might 
touch  Him." 2  It  may  be  inferred  that  the  diseases 
named  are  typical  of  those  with  which  He  was  accustomed 
to  deal  throughout  His  career.  There  is  no  mention  in 
the  records  of  His  healing  such  diseases  as  tuberculosis, 
typhus,  diphtheria  and  the  like.  He  is  reported  to  have 
cured  leprosy,  which  in  the  view  of  modern  medical  sci- 
ence is  incurable.  But  here  we  must  remember  that  in 
the  ancient  world  two  types  of  leprosy  were  recognized, 
the  one  curable,  the  other  incurable.3  And  from  the 
vague  description  given  in  the  Gospels  we  are  unable  to 
decide  which  type  is  referred  to.  An  analogy  to  the  heal- 

1  Mark  i.  32-34.          2  Maik  iii.  8-10.          3  See  Lev.,  chap,  xiii 


346  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

ing  of  the  milder  type  may  perhaps  be  found  in  the  well- 
known  fact  that  certain  forms  of  eczema  are  recognized 
to  be  largely  of  nervous  origin  and  are  amenable  to  the 
influence  of  suggestion.  "  Eruptions  on  the  skin,"  says 
a  distinguished  medical  writer,  "will  follow  excessive 
mental  strain."  l  If  we  assume,  for  example,  that  this 
was  the  type  of  leprosy  mentioned  by  all  the  first  three 
Evangelists  as  having  been  cured  at  Capernaum,  we  can 
understand  why  the  leper  was  permitted  to  come  up  close 
to  Jesus  and  to  mix  with  other  people. 

As  space  will  not  permit  a  detailed  examination  of 
all  Christ's  healing  miracles,  it  will  be  convenient  to  select 
one  for  close  study  in  order  that  we  may  the  better  under- 
stand His  attitude  toward  disease  and  the  methods  which 
He  employed  to  combat  it.  The  incident  which  we  have 
chosen  for  examination  is  that  of  the  healing  of  the  par- 
alytic.2 This  story  is  the  more  readily  selected  because 
it  offers  certain  difficulties  which  have  excited  consider- 
able scepticism.  For  our  part,  the  more  we  study  it, 
especially  in  the  light  of  the  analogies  of  modern  medical 
knowledge,  the  more  are  we  convinced  of  its  historicity. 
The  story  can  be  briefly  told. 

At  some  undefined  point  in  His  ministry  we  find  Christ 
"preaching  the  Word"  of  the  Kingdom  in  a  house  at 
Capernaum.  The  house  is  one-storied,  as  most  village 
houses  in  Palestine  are  to-day,  built  but  a  few  feet  above 
the  ground,  consisting  of  one  or  at  most  two  rooms,  with  a 
rough  outside  stairway  leading  to  the  flat  roof.  Within,  all 

1  Sir  B.  W.  Richardson,  Field  of  Disease,  p.  618,  quoted  by  Schofield, 
The  Unconscious  Mind,  p.  359. 

3  Mark  ii.  1-12,  and  parallel  passages. 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF   CHRIST          347 

the  available  space  is  crowded  and  even  the  entrance  is 
choked  by  an  interested  audience.  Suddenly,  there  appear 
four  men  bearing  a  rude  pallet  or  quilt  on  which  lies  a 
young  man  paralyzed  on  one  side  of  his  body.  They 
would  force  a  way  into  the  presence  of  Jesus,  whose  repu- 
tation as  a  healer  is  spreading  far  and  wide.  But  the 
crowd  will  not  yield.  Nevertheless  the  friends  of  the  sick 
man  are  determined  not  to  be  balked  of  their  purpose. 
They  make  their  way  to  the  roof  of  the  dwelling  by  the 
outer  stairway,  and,  as  St.  Mark  graphically  says,  "  unroof 
the  roof"  by  "digging  up"  the  tiles  or  slabs  of  dried  clay, 
and  through  the  hole  thus  made  they  lower  the  pallet 
with  the  sufferer  to  the  feet  of  Jesus.  The  faith  of  friends 
and  patient  fill  Him  with  admiration.  He  cannot  refuse 
such  a  challenge.  In  some  way  or  other  His  inspired 
insight  detects  beneath  the  physical  a  moral  paralysis,  a 
disease  of  conscience,  the  sense  of  guilt,  the  pressure  of 
some  sin,  which  has  led  to  this  bodily  distress.  The 
deepest  need  of  the  sufferer  is  not  to  be  cured  of  his  physi- 
ical  disorder;  it  is  to  be  healed  of  his  spiritual  misery 
that  lies  behind  the  bodily  disturbance,  and  so  Jesus 
turns  to  him  with  the  word  of  comfort,  "  Child,  your  sins 
are  forgiven."  At  once  certain  critical  theologians  pres- 
ent who  have  come  from  a  distance  take  offense.  "The 
man  is  speaking  blasphemy,"  they  say.  "  God  alone  has 
power  to  forgive  sins."  Jesus,  with  a  touch  of  irony, 
turns  on  them  with  the  question,  "Why  do  you  think 
such  thoughts?  Is  it  easier  to  say  to  the  paralytic  'Your 
sins  are  forgiven/  or  to  say,  'Arise,  and  take  your  bed 
and  go?":  Doubtless  the  critics  would  reply,  "It  is 
easier  to  assure  a  man  of  forgiveness  than  to  cure  him  of 


348  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

paralysis,  and  the  man  therefore  who  can  do  the  greater 
may  be  assumed  to  be  able  to  do  the  less."  Jesus  feels 
within  himself  -that  He  has  power  to  forgive  sins,  that  is, 
to  offer  such  an  assurance  of  forgiveness  as  is  valid  before 
God  and  as  actually  removes  the  guilt  of  sin.  He  is 
also  conscious  of  the  power  of  the  Saviour  to  innervate 
afresh  the  physical  life  of  the  man  before  Him  with  a  flood 
of  physical  energy.  Strong  in  the  consciousness  of  this 
double  power,  He  addresses  Himself  to  the  sufferer, 
summons  him  to  put  forth  His  will  by  commanding  him 
to  rise  and  take  up  his  bed  and  go  unto  his  house.  The 
sick  man  obeys  the  command  to  the  amazement  of  all 
who  are  present. 

This  simple  and  artless  story  has  been  subjected  by 
Strauss  i  to  a  searching  criticism,  with  the  result  that  he 
rejects  it  as  a  mere  legend  without  the  slightest  founda- 
tion in  fact,  and  accounts  for  its  appearance  by  the  Mes- 
sianic obsession  of  the  time  working  on  such  a  prophecy 
as  that  of  Isaiah:  "Then  shall  the  lame  man  leap  as  a 
hart." 2  Strauss's  criticism  is  based  partly  on  critical 
grounds  and  partly  on  supposed  improbabilities  in  the 
details  of  the  narrative.  Matthew  gives  the  original 
form  of  the  story,  and  Luke  in  turn  is  outdone  by  Mark 
in  wealth  of  detail.  Matthew  simply  says  that  a  paralytic 
was  brought  to  Jesus  stretched  on  a  bed.  Luke  describes 
how  Jesus  surrounded  by  a  multitude  taught  and  healed 
in  a  certain  house,  and  how  the  bearers,  unable  to  get 
near  Him  for  the  press,  let  the  sick  man  down  through 
the  roof;  Mark  goes  beyond  Luke  in  stating  the  number 
of  the  bearers  and  in  describing  how  they  tore  up  the  roof 

1  zxxv.  6.  *  Life  of  Jesus,  pp.  455-7,  English  translation. 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF  CHRIST 


349 


so  as  to  let  the  sick  man  through.  Thus  do  legends  grow. 
But  modern  criticism  cuts  the  ground  from  under  this 
sceptical  theory  by  showing  that  not  Matthew  but  Mark 
is  our  earliest  Gospel  and  that  Matthew  and  Luke  depend 
on  it  for  much  of  their  material.  Thus  the  Gospel  of 
Mark  with  its  supposed  difficulties  stands  nearest  the 
facts.  Moreover,  according  to  Papias,  a  very  early  author- 
ity, Mark  depended  for  his  information  on  an  eye-witness, 
Peter,  whose  recollections  he  wrote  down.  This  suffi- 
ciently accounts  for  the  lifelike  detail  and  dramatic  action 
of  the  story  as  it  is  told  in  the  second  Gospel.  As  to  the 
improbabilities  which  Strauss  finds  in  connection  with  the 
getting  on  the  roof  and  of  digging  it  up,  they  are  based 
upon  a  misunderstanding  of  the  structure  of  peasant 
dwellings  in  Palestine.  Modern  travelers  make  it  quite 
clear  that  the  action  of  the  patient's  friends  was  very 
natural  and  easy  of  accomplishment.1 

Even  Keim,  misled  by  western  conceptions  of  house 
structure,  and  by  a  wrong  critical  theory,  agrees  with 
Strauss  in  regarding  the  realistic  touches  of  St.  Mark 
as  spurious.2  On  the  other  hand  he  accepts  the  kernel 
of  the  story  —  the  healing  of  a  case  of  paralysis,  and  ac- 
counts for  the  deed  by  a  reference  to  the  power  of  strong 
emotions,  whether  of  joy  or  of  terror,  upon  the  physical 
organism.  Keim  is  here  looking  in  the  right  direction. 
Nevertheless  he  does  not  do  justice  to  all  the  facts. 

Let  us,  with  the  second  Evangelist  as  our  guide,  try 

1  See  Thomson,  The  Land  and  the  Book,  p.  358;  Grant,  The  Peasan- 
try of  Palestine,  p.  75;  Stapfer,  Palestine  in  the  Time  of  Christ,  p.  177; 
Edersheim,  History  of  the  Jewish  Nation,  p.  253. 

3  Jesus  of  Nazara  (English  Translation),  vol.  iii,  pp.  213-218. 


350  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

to  understand  the  meaning  of  the  story,  to  make  it  intel- 
ligible by  co-ordinating  it  with  known  facts  and  to  deduce 
from  it  our  Lord's  relation  to  sickness  and  His  method 
of  dealing  with  it.  This  will  at  the  same  time  be  the 
best  apologetic  for  its  historical  worth. 

i.  We  note  that  here  Jesus  recognizes  the  moral  causes 
which  in  certain  instances  lie  behind  the  physical  dis- 
ease. The  friends  of  the  sick  man  want  Jesus  to  heal 
him,  as  it  were,  by  a  wave  of  the  hand,  but  Jesus  is  no 
magician,  and  He  knows  that  the  moral  malady  is  at  the 
root  of  the  trouble.  He  is  very  far  indeed  from  sharing 
the  prevailing  theological  notion  of  His  time  that  every 
sickness  in  itself  was  evidence  of  sin,  open  or  unconfessed. 
No!  Rather  for  Him  disease  and  sin  are  parts  of  a 
complex  order  —  the  kingdom  of  evil  —  to  overcome 
which  He  felt  himself  sent  by  God.  His  Gospel  or  good 
news  was  in  essence  this:  that  God  must  be  no  longer 
conceived  as  the  author  of  the  misery  and  torture  that 
make  of  human  life  a  hell.  On  the  contrary,  He  is 
Love,  and  as  Love  He  is  ever  seeking  to  express  Himself 
hi  joy.  He  is  against  disorder,  weakness,  pain,  lack  of 
self-control;  these  forces  weaken  life,  and  He  is  the  God 
of  the  living.  Nevertheless,  Jesus  recognizes,  as  every 
close  observer  of  human  life  must  recognize,  that  there 
are  reciprocal  relations  between  sin  and  disease  just  as 
there  are  reciprocal  relations  between  the  soul  and  the 
body.1  "Medical  science,"  says  Matthew  Arnold,  "has 
never  gaged  —  never  perhaps  enough  set  itself  to  gage 
—  the  intimate  connection  between  moral  fault  and  dis- 
ease. To  what  extent  or  in  how  many  cases  what  is 

1  Cp.  John  v.  14. 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF  CHRIST          351 

called  illness  is  due  to  moral  springs  having  been  used 
amiss,  whether  by  being  over  used  or  by  not  being  used 
sufficiently,  we  hardly  at  all  know,  and  we  too  little  in- 
quire. Certainly  it  is  due  to  this  very  much  more  than 
we  commonly  think,  and  the  more  it  is  due  to  this,  the 
more  do  moral  therapeutics  rise  in  possibility  and  im- 
portance. The  bringer  of  light  and  happiness,  the  calmer 
and  pacifier  or  invigorator  and  stimulator  is  one  of  the 
chief est  of  doctors.  Such  a  doctor  is  Jesus."  * 

We  know  to-day  that  many  nervous  disorders  have 
their  main  root  in  the  moral  region.  Selfishness,  making 
undue  claims  on  the  world,  leads  to  worry,  and  worry  is 
one  of  the  most  prolific  causes  of  neurasthenia  and  allied 
troubles.  Or  the  sense  of  some  moral  fault  unpurged 
by  penitence  creates  a  dissociation  of  consciousness  which 
in  turn  may  lead  to  hysteria,  and  hysteria,  as  we  know, 
can  simulate  almost  any  disease  and  turn  life  into  a  pro- 
longed wretchedness.  Or  again,  wrong  conceptions  of 
God  and  of  His  relations  to  his  creatures  depress  the 
soul,  sink  it  into  melancholy  delusions  and  thereby  set 
up  all  sorts  of  functional  nervous  disturbances.  The 
alienist  assures  us  that  sixty  per  cent,  of  insanity  may 
be  traced  to  absence  of  self-control  in  one  shape  or  an- 
other. If  then  the  representatives  of  Christ  to-day  are 
to  speak  the  healing  and  reconciling  word,  they  must  first 
understand  more  of  the  relations  between  abnormal  states 
of  mind  or  soul  and  the  reflections  of  these  states  in  the 
physical  organism. 

2.  Christ's  healing  power  required  as  a  psychological 
medium  and  spiritual  condition  faith  on  the  part  of  the 

1  Literature  and  Dogma  (Osgood's  Edition),  pp.  135-136. 


352  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

healed  or  of  his  friends  or  of  both.  This  is  the  rule  to 
which  there  is  but  one  clear  and  necessary  exception.  In 
the  cases  of  demon  possession  the  mental  organism  was 
itself  so  disorganized  that  faith  or  any  other  rational  and 
motived  act  was  impossible.  Jesus  in  these  instances 
began  by  soothing  the  mind  and  distracting  it  from  its 
obsession,  and  then  with  the  naked  force  of  his  own  per- 
sonality, revealing  itself  in  look,  gesture,  and  word  of 
command,  He  broke  down  the  structure  of  hallucina- 
tion and  delusion  which  the  morbid  action  of  mind  had 
built  up  and  thereby  He  set  the  sufferer  free  from  his 
disorder.  But  wherever  a  measure  of  self-control  was 
left,  He  demanded  faith.  And  we  may  assume  the  exist- 
ence of  faith  even  in  those  cases  in  connection  with  which 
it  is  not  expressly  named.  Wherever  there  is  a  detailed 
account  of  a  healing  wonder,  the  presence  of  faith  is 
indicated.  For  example,  to  the  woman  with  the  issue 
of  blood  Christ's  word  is,  "Thy  faith  hath  made  thee 
whole."  l  The  blind  beggar  at  Jericho,  whose  cry  of 
expectant  trust  could  not  be  silenced,  hears  from  the  lips 
of  Christ  the  same  benediction.  At  Nazareth  His  hands 
were  tied  because  of  the  unbelief  of  His  fellow  townsmen. 
"He  was  not  able  to  do  any  mighty  work  there."2  Only 
a  few  unimportant  cases  He  treated  because  in  these  a  lit- 
tle faith  sufficed.  This  faith  Jesus  Himself  sought  to  en- 
courage. The  blind  man  brought  to  Him  at  Bethsaida s 
He  isolates  from  the  crowd  and  uses  the  simple  thera- 
peutic remedies  then  in  vogue  and  with  which  doubtless 
the  man  was  familiar.  The  restoration  of  sight  was 
gradual.  Jesus  encouraged  him  to  try  to  see,  but  at  first 

1  Mark  v.  34.  *  Mark  vi.  5-6.  3  Mark  viii.  22. 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF  CHRIST          353 

the  effort  is  only  partially  successful.  Jesus  repeated 
the  operation  of  touching  the  eyes  with  spittle  and  then, 
as  Mark  says,  "he  took  a  steady  look  and  was  restored 
and  saw  everything  clearly."  *  In  the  story  before  us  it 
is  said  that  Jesus  seeing  their  faith  proceeded  to  pronounce 
His  absolution.3  First  and  mainly,  perhaps,  our  atten- 
tion is  called  to  the  faith  of  the  sick  man's  friends.  The 
patient,  then,  has  been  for  some  time  living  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  faith.  The  reports  of  Christ's  healing  work 
have  reached  His  companions  and  have  stirred  them  to 
hope  and  trust.  This  very  hope  and  trust  have  created 
a  psychological  atmosphere  favorable  to  the  sufferer's 
eventual  recovery.  Moreover,  it  has  tended  to  awaken 
faith  in  the  patient  himself.  As  in  the  case  of  the  daughter 
of  Jairus,  Christ  feels  Himself  mighty  in  an  atmosphere 
free  from  doubt  and  fear.  We  can  see,  too,  how  a  strong 
faith  on  the  part  of  this  unhappy  man  was  developed. 
The  very  fact  that  he  allowed  his  friends  to  carry  him  to 
Christ  showed  that  faith  had  already  germinated  in  his 
heart.  Every  element  in  the  strange  and  never  to  be 
forgotten  scene  in  which  he  is  to  be  for  the  moment  the 
central  figure  was  calculated  to  develop  this  germ,  to 
affect  powerfully  his  imagination  and  to  arouse  all  his 
slumbering  moral  forces.  First  of  all,  there  is  the  con- 
tagion of  the  crowd  eager  to  hear  the  Great  Teacher, 
and  the  powerful  impression  made  upon  them.  Then 
there  is  the  inability  to  find  access  to  Him,  causing  mo- 
mentary disappointment  to  be  followed  by  a  reaction  of 
hope.  Then  there  is  the  climbing  of  the  roof  and  the 

1  Cp.  Mark  vii.  31-37  for  a  similar  treatment  of  the  deaf  and  dumb 
man.  a  Mark  ii.  5. 


354  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

unusual  mode  of  access  to  the  Healer's  presence.  Nor 
can  we  forget  the  powerful  nature  of  the  indirect  sugges- 
tion conveyed  by  his  listening  to  the  controversy  between 
Christ  and  His  critics  and  by  marking  the  victory  which 
Christ  easily  achieved.  Above  all,  there  is  the  tender 
and  gracious  Personality  shining  out  in  all  its  winsome- 
ness  and  sympathy  by  way  of  contrast  against  the  frown- 
ing and  ungenial  background  of  scribe  and  Pharisee. 
All  this  must  have  tended  to  create  expectant  attention, 
faith,  confidence,  hope,  —  the  psychical  conditions  of  a 
cure.  We  conclude  then  that  the  miraculousness  of 
Christ's  healing  power  did  not  consist  in  His  refusal  to  use 
secondary  causes,  but  rather  in  the  Divine  love  and  grace 
which  moved  Him  to  His  cures  and  which  His  cures 
symbolized  to  the  spiritually  susceptible  mind. 

3.  What  was  the  secret  of  Christ's  healing  power?1 
The  answer  is,  His  sense  of  filial  dependence  upon  God 
expressed  in  faith  and  prayer.  The  failure  of  the  dis- 
ciples to  heal  the  epileptic  boy  at  the  foot  of  the  Mount 
of  Transfiguration  Christ  explains  as  due  to  their  want 
of  faith,2  and  this  want  is  explained  because  of  their  weak- 
ness in  prayer,  in  the  strong  desire  which  sets  in  motion 
the  Divine  Will.  Christ's  consciousness  of  oneness  with 
His  father  is  implied  in  His  saying  to  His  critics,  "But 
that  ye  may  know  that  the  Son  of  Man  hath  authority 
on  earth  to  forgive  sins."  This  authority  is  delegated  to 
Him  by  his  Father.  He  is  the  appointed  Redeemer  of 

1  Some  of  Christ's  contemporaries,  such  as  the  woman  with  an  issue 
of  blood,  attributed  His  healing  power  to  «  kind  of  animal  magnetism 
residing  in  His  person  and  in  His  garments,  and  which  could  be  drawn 
upon  without  any  exercise  of  His  will.  Cp.  Mark  v.  30,  vi.  10. 

3  Matthew  xvii.  19. 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF  CHRIST         355 

mankind,  the  Founder  of  God's  Kingdom  upon  earth, 
and  therefore  He  was  equipped  with  the  power  necessary 
to  oppose  and  overcome  the  whole  order  of  evil,  to  destroy 
it  not  in  its  outward  manifestations  only  but  in  its  ulti- 
mate causes.  His  power  to  heal  is  therefore  only  the 
visible  manifestation  of  another  power,  His  power  to 
annul  the  guilt  and  activity  of  sin.  This  power  was  not 
something  given  Him  once  and  for  all,  a  magical  endow- 
ment; rather  was  it  an  ethical  quality  to  be  sustained 
through  communion  with  God.  It  is  significant  that  after 
a  day's  healing  and  preaching  activity  at  Capernaum  He 
rose  the  following  morning  a  great  while  before  day  and 
departed  into  a  solitary  place  and  there  prayed.1  It  is 
here  that  we  touch  the  inmost  secret  of  Christ's  power. 
It  is  the  mystery  of  His  personality,  something  which 
sets  Him  apart  from  humanity,  something  which  lifts 
Him  into  a  category  by  Himself.  In  healing  as  in  teach- 
ing the  best  of  men  can  follow  Him  only  at  a  long  interval. 
The  conditions,  psychical  and  spiritual,  of  the  healing 
wonder  are  now  clearly  manifest.  The  sick  man,  from  a 
variety  of  circumstances  co-operating,  with  his  own  long- 
ing to  be  free  from  misery,  lies  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  full  of 
expectant  and  of  hopeful  confidence.  He  feels  a  sense 
of  security.  Anything,  even  what  seems  impossible,  is 
possible  in  the  presence  of  this  Divine  Man.  Had  the 
poor  paralytic  been  asked  by  some  one  later,  "How  did 
you  know  that  Christ  was  able  to  heal  you?"  he  might 
have  replied  in  the  words  of  lole  concerning  Hercules: 
"Because  I  was  content  the  moment  my  eyes  fell  on 
Him  —  He  conquered  whether  He  stood  or  walked  or 

1  Mark  i.  35. 


356  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

sat."  Moreover  the  man's  deepest  need  had  been  met, 
the  moral  burden  that  had  been  weighing  him  down  was 
removed;  the  various  inhibitions  caused  by  it  no  longer 
existed;  in  a  word,  all  that  is  necessary  is  for  the  Healer 
to  utter  His  word  of  command  and  the  deed  is  done,  the 
cure  is  wrought.  Jesus,  with  a  look  of  compassion  linked 
with  power,  challenges  the  man  to  stand  up.  The  man 
hears  and  obeys. 

The  records  of  any  great  psychological  clinic  of  to-day 
should  suffice  to  banish  the  last  lingering  doubt  as  to  the 
genuineness  of  the  narrative  we  have  just  discussed. 
One  typical  illustration  may  be  given.  From  1866  until 
1875  a  young  woman  was  confined  in  the  Saltperiere 
Hospital  at  Paris  suffering  from  hysteria.  Her  left  arm 
and  her  left  leg  were  paralzyed  and  by  the  contraction  of 
the  leg  a  kind  of  club-foot  had  been  formed.  The  muscles 
of  the  tongue  were  so  affected  that  she  lost  her  speech. 
There  was  also  a  contraction  of  the  oesophagus  which  hin- 
dered swallowing.  The  left  eye  was  almost  wholly  blind. 
All  the  resources  of  medical  science  were  tried  for  her 
relief,  but  in  vain.  Charcot,  the  noted  expert  in  abnor- 
mal psychology,  publicly  explained  that  only  some  unfore- 
seen and  powerful  impression  could  cure  her.  Three  years 
after  this  statement  was  made,  the  patient  was  convinced 
that  she  would  become  well  if  on  a  certain  Church  festival 
the  sacred  Host  should  be  placed  upon  her  head.  She 
waited  in  suspense  for  the  day.  As  the  procession  ap- 
proached, she  began  to  tremble,  lost  consciousness,  and 
fell  into  convulsions.  In  a  few  moments  she  was  cured  and 
was  able  to  go  into  the  chapel  to  return  thanks  to  God.1 

1  See  Traub  Die  Wunder  im  Neuen  Testament,  p.  37. 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF  CHRIST          357 

If  any  medical  fact  can  be  relied  upon,  it  is  that  for  cer- 
tain nervous  disorders  suggestion  has  a  healing  power. 
This  is  brought  forward  here  not  as  an  adequate  expla- 
nation, for  suggestion  is  itself  a  mystery,  but  as  an  analogy 
that  may  well  render  credible  the  extraordinary  and  in 
some  respects  unparalleled  cures  in  the  ministry  of  Christ. 
There  is  one  type  of  disorder  which  stands  in  a  category 
by  itself  and  over  which  Jesus  exercised  especial  power. 
It  is  that  which  goes  by  the  name  of  "demon  possession." 
There  are  six  cases  of  this  disorder  reported,  three  of 
them  with  some  detail  and  three  more  briefly.1  Besides 
these  we  have  a  reference  to  another  case,  that  of  Mary 
Magdalene,  out  of  whom  it  is  said  seven  demons  were 
cast.2  Then  we  have  casual  notices  of  the  cure  of  those 
possessed  with  demons.3  Not  only  so,  but  the  Twelve  and 
the  Seventy  reported  to  Jesus  that  they  had  had  power 
over  demons.4  This  power,  however,  though  apparently 
enhanced  in  Jesus  and  His  disciples,  was  not  peculiar 
to  them,  for  we  find  a  reference  to  an  unknown  man  who 
was  seen  by  the  disciples  casting  out  demons,5  and  Jesus 
himself  admits  that  the  pupils  of  the  Pharisees  were  able 
to  cast  them  out.8  One  receives  the  impression  that 
however  demoniacal  possession  is  to  be  explained,  it  was 
a  disease  very  widespread  in  Palestine  in  the  time  of 
Christ.  Doubtless  there  were  special  social  and  relig- 
ious conditions  favorable  to  the  growth  of  the  distemper. 
The  deep  poverty  of  the  people,  crushed  as  they  were  be- 

1  Mark,  v.  1-20  and  parallel  passages;  Mark  i.  23-26;  Mark  ix.  14-29; 
Mark  vii.  24-30;  Matthew  ix.  32-33;  Matthew  xii.  12-22. 

2  Luke  viii.  2. 

•Mark  i.  34-39;  iii.   n.  8  Mark  ix.  38. 

*Mark  vi.  13;  Luke  x.  17.  6  Matthew  ix.  27. 


358  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

neath  the  intolerable  burden  of  the  Roman  taxation;  the 
consequent  physical  and  moral  degradation;  the  over- 
strained Messianic  expectation,  leading  to  all  sorts  of 
fantastic  and  apocalyptic  beliefs;  the  firmly-rooted  and 
prevailing  belief  in  the  existence  and  activity  of  malignant 
spirits,  a  belief  which  the  Jew  shared  with  the  rest  of  the 
world  —  all  these  elements  formed  a  kind  of  forcing  bed 
for  abnormal  mental  phenomena.  The  consensus  of 
Biblical  scholarship  is  tending  toward  interpreting  this 
strange  disorder  in  the  light  of  modern  psychological 
medicine.  From  this  point  of  view  the  essential  element 
in  it  was  the  presence  of  some  psychical  nervous  or  mental 
disease  of  which  the  demoniacal  obsession  was  an  accidental 
symptom.  Before  the  birth  of  psychological  science  and 
while  the  changes  produced  by  a  morbid  nervous  state 
in  our  conscious  life  were  unknown,  the  strange  phenom- 
ena of  insanity  were  likely  to  be  attributed  to  demons. 
When  people  perceived  the  marked  a'nd  unaccountable 
alteration  that  the  moral  and  mental  state  of  their  friends 
had  undergone,  when  they  heard  strange  words  fall  from 
their  lips  and  witnessed  all  the  melancholy  manifestations 
of  what  would  be  called  in  our  time  double  or  multiple 
personality,  they  could  hardly  avoid  the  supposition  that 
this  profound  transformation,  these  unreasonable  fears 
and  inhuman  actions,  were  due  to  the  presence  of  a  foreign 
or  malign  spirit.  They  perceived  that  it  was  not  the 
spirit  of  their  friend  that  manifested  itself.  Hence  they 
could  only  suppose  it  was  some  other  spirit  that  had  en- 
tered their  friend's  body  and  that  spoke  through  his  lips. 
To  this  psychological  motive  must  be  added  the  religious 
motive  already  referred  to,  which  was  at  hand  in  the  form 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF  CHRIST         359 

of  an  elaborate  doctrine  of  demons  developed  by  the  Jews 
largely  out  of  foreign  elements  after  the  close  of  the  Old 
Testament  Canon,  and  to  which  the  Apocryphal  books 
bear  abundant  witness.  The  belief  itself  is  pathological 
and  except  kept  in  check  by  the  healthier  elements  in 
the  individual  and  social  life  would  tend  to  act  as  a  power- 
ful suggestion  and  would  simulate  a  sort  of  pseudo- 
reality.  Moreover,  modern  travelers  and  missionaries 
tell  us  that  very  similar  phenomena  may  be  observed  at 
the  present  time  in  India,  China,  Japan,  and  other  Ori- 
ental countries  where  belief  in  evil  spirits  is  prevalent.1 
The  missionaries  exorcise  demons  to-day  mainly  by 
prayer  and  exhortation.  The  supposed  demons  speak 
through  the  organs  of  the  possessed;  they  hate  and  seek 
to  injure  those  who  would  exorcise  them;  they  produce 
all  manner  of  physical  contortions  and  various  nervous 
diseases;  and  they  endow  those  over  whom  they  tyran- 
nize with  apparently  superhuman  strength.  It  is  clear 
that  the  demon  possession  of  the  Gospels  does  not  stand 
by  itself,  but  is  to  be  viewed  in  connection  with  similar 
phenomena  that  were  common  in  early  Christianity,  in 
Judaism  and  in  many  other  religions.  In  general  we 
may  say  that  the  Gospels  distinguish  between  ordinary 
diseases  and  possession  by  demons,  which  latter  they 
limit  to  a  distinct  class  of  nervous  and  mental  maladies. 
We  know  to-day  that  it  is  persons  afflicted  with  these  ail- 

1  See  Nevius,  Demon  Possession  and  Allied  Themes.  Tylor,  Primi- 
tive Culture,  vol.  ii,  pp.  108-246.  Two  valuable  articles  in  Bibliotheca 
Sacra,  pp.  300-324;  460-486.  Popular  Science  Monthly,  xxxv,  p.  150. 
Articles  by  F.  C.  Conybeare  in  Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  1896-1897. 
Alexander,  Demonic  Possession  in  '-he  New  Testament. — Art.  Damonische 
in  Herzog's  Realencyk. 


360  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

ments  who  are  most  susceptible  to  suggestion.  In  the 
three  typical  cases  to  which  reference  has  already  been 
made  we  may  recognize  some  well-known  form  of  ner- 
vous or  mental  disease.  The  boy  at  the  foot  of  the  Mount 
of-  Transfiguration  with  his  falls,  his  convulsions,  his 
gnashing  teeth,  his  foaming  lips,  the  sudden  onset  of  the 
attacks  in  which  he  flings  himself  into  fire  and  water, 
the  sudden  cessation  of  the  seizure,1  all  these  painful 
manifestations  the  father  of  the  boy  and  the  narrator 
ascribe,  in  accordance  with  the  belief  of  their  time,  to 
the  malignant  energy  of  a  demon.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
however,  a  modern  physician  would  content  himself  with 
diagnosing  the  case  as  epilepsy,  a  disease  of  the  highest 
nerve  centers  and  appearing  in  different  forms.  The 
demoniac  in  the  synagogue  of  Capernaum  appears  to 
have  been  afflicted  with  some  type  of  hysteria.  Luke 
says  that  though  the  demon  threw  the  sufferer  down  yet 
he  received  no  harm,2  —  a  clear  case  of  anaesthesia  or 
loss  of  sensation  which  is  one  of  the  stigmata  of  hysteria. 
"Of  all  nervous  afflictions,"  say  Charcot  and  Richet, 
"hysteria  is  the  one  which  in  the  case  of  possession  ap- 
pears to  have  played  almost  always  the  most  considerable 
r6le."  s  The  demoniac  of  Gerasa  with  his  wild  cry,  his 
self-inflicted  injuries,  his  frantic  gestures,  his  ferocious 
onslaught  on  passers-by,  is  plainly  the  victim  of  some  type 
of  mania.  In  the  cases  of  the  blind  and  dumb  demoniac 
and  the  dumb  demoniac  recorded  by  the  first  Evangelist,4 

1  See  Matthew  xvii.  15.     (R.  V.) 

1  Chap.  iv.  35. 

»  Quoted  by  Soltau,  Hat  Jesus  Wunder  Cetan  ?,  p.  69. 

4  Chap.  be.  32;  xii.  22. 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF  CHRIST          361 

the  dumbness  and  blindness  are  probably  the  accompani- 
ments of  a  hysterical  neurosis.  With  the  healing  of  the 
hysteria  these  symptoms  would  naturally  disappear. 
Our  view  of  the  reality  or  unreality  of  these  evil  agencies 
will  depend  upon  our  general  view  of  the  universe.  It 
is  significant  that  as  education  spreads,  belief  in  demon- 
iacal possession  dies  out  and  that  the  greatest  strongholds 
of  the  belief  to-day  are  in  non-Christian  countries.  It 
is  hard  to  resist  the  impression  that  Christ  Himself  shared 
the  common  idea,  yet  we  must  remember  that  the  narra- 
tives of  the  disorder  were  written  by  men  prepossessed 
with  the  theory  of  demoniacal  action,  and  even  the  words 
of  Jesus  Himself  come  to  us  through  the  minds  of  such 
men.  If  the  evidence  warrants  us  in  believing  that  Jesus 
did  share  the  contemporary  belief,  we  must  maintain  that 
in  no  way  does  this  fact  invalidate  His  spiritual  authority 
as  the  Founder  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  His  igno- 
rance of  psychology  and  physiology  is  one  of  the  limita- 
tions of  His  human  knowledge.  In  any  event,  He  did 
not  stop  to  speculate  as  to  the  psychical  or  physical  causes 
of  these  afflictions.  He  proceeded  to  heal  them  and  the 
glorious  fact  remains  that  His  word,  His  will,  His  per- 
sonality were  sufficient  for  this  task.  Nothing  impressed 
the  early  Church  so  much  as  His  power  to  exorcise  the 
demons  with  a  word! l  Armed  alone  with  the  spiritual 
power  of  faith  in  God  and  love  to  humanity,  He  stands 
over  against  the  exorcists  of  His  time  with  their  fumiga- 
tions, their  sacramental  acts,  their  mysterious  signs, 
their  terrible  formulas.  With  Him  all  is  simple  and 
sublime.  Not  without  significance  as  to  the  impression 

1  Cp.  Matt.  viii.  16. 


362  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

Jesus  made  upon  early  generations  of  Christians  is  the 
legend  that  Abgarus,  King  of  Edessa,  afflicted  with  a 
grievous  disease,  sent  a  letter  to  Christ  by  the  hands  of  a 
courier  to  beg  Him  to  come  and  heal  him.  He  writes,  "  I 
have  heard  the  reports  of  Thee  and  of  Thy  cures,  that 
they  are  performed  without  medicines  and  without  herbs." l 
Jesus  Himself  says  that  it  is  by  the  Spirit  or  Finger  of  God 
that  He  casts  out  demons.  Even  at  a  distance,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Syro- Phoenician  woman's  daughter,  He 
is  able  to  affect  a  cure,  —  a  feat  not  unexampled  in  mod- 
ern times  and  certainly  not  to  be  set  aside  when  we  take 
into  consideration  the  results  of  psychical  research.  As 
a  rule,  it  is  His  word  of  command  carrying  a  definite 
forth-putting  of  will  that  restores  self-control  to  the  sufferer. 
"It  fell,"  as  Traub  says,  "on  the  nerves."  The  inter- 
position of  a  mighty  will,  the  tranquilizing  contact  with 
a  calm  and  elevated  nature,  the  touch  of  sympathy,  the 
word  of  hope,  were  the  means  He  employed  in  effecting 
His  wonderful  restorations.  When  He  meets  the  raving 
demoniac  of  Gerasa2  who  could  not  be  bound  by  iron 
fetters  and  had  taken  up  his  abode  in  the  vaults  of  the 
dead,  He  enters  into  quiet  soothing  conversation  with 
him  so  as  to  draw  off  the  diseased  mind  from  its  obses- 
sion. So  profound  an  impression  did  Jesus  make  upon 
the  unhappy  man  that  after  the  cure  he  entreated  Jesus 
that  he  might  be  allowed  to  become  one  of  His  stated 
followers  and  to  stay  constantly  with  Him,  but  Jesus  sent 
him  as  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel  to  his  own  kinsfolk. 
How  a  healthy  personality  affects  an  unhealthy  personality, 
how  will  touches  will,  what  it  is  that  passes  from  the  sane 

1  Eusebius,  Eccles.  Hist.,  Book  I,  13,  6.  » Mark  v.  1-20. 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF  CHRIST         363 

and  ordered  mind  to  the  unsound  and  disordered,  it  is 
impossible  to  tell,  but  every  psychological  clinic  to-day 
is  a  witness  to  the  reality  of  such  facts.  As  we  know 
nothing  of  the  after  history  of  those  that  were  healed,  we 
are  unable  to  affirm  that  there  were  no  relapses.  That 
some  of  the  cures  failed  to  be  permanent  would  appear 
from  the  little  parable  in  which  Jesus  speaks  of  the  demon 
who  has  gone  out  of  a  man  passing  through  desert  places 
and  unable  to  find  rest  turning  back  to  the  soul  from 
which  he  had  been  cast  forth  and,  along  with  seven  other 
spirits  more  evil  than  himself,  entering  into  the  man 
once  more  to  make  his  last  state  worse  than  his  first.1 
The  relapses  must  have  been  very  exceptional;  otherwise 
we  could  not  account  for  the  splendor  of  His  fame,  as  the 
Physician  both  of  soul  and  body.2 

Some  readers  may  perhaps  be  willing  to  acknowledge 
the  truth  of  everything  stated  so  far,  but  they  will  object : 
"Were  not  the  healing  deeds  of  Christ  extraordinary 
events,  a  parallel  to  which  is  never  to  be  expected  ?  What 
evidence,"  they  will  say,  "is  there  in  favor  of  thinking 
that  Christ  meant  His  healing  ministry  as  well  as  his 
teaching  ministry  to  be  represented  in  His  Church  in 
all  coming  time?"  To  begin  with,  Christ  in  sending 
forth  His  disciples  on  their  Galilean  tour  "gave  them 
authority  over  the  unclean  spirits,"  3  and  we  are  told  that 
they  carried  out  His  commission,  for  they  cast  out  many 

1  Luke  xi.  24. 

*  The  earliest  apology  for  Christianity,  outside  the  New  Testament, 
written  by  one  Quadratus  about  125  A.D.,but  no  longer  extant,  contained 
a  statement  preserved  by  Eusebius   (Hist.  Eccles.  iv.   3)   to  the  effect 
that  some  of  those  healed  by  Christ  lived  till  the  writer's  time. 

*  Mark  vi.  7. 


364  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

demons  and  anointed  with  oil  many  that  were  sick  and 
healed  them.  And  we  know  from  another  source  that 
the  practice  of  anointing  the  sick  man  with  oil  and  pray- 
ing over  him,  both  for  physical  and  moral  health,  pre- 
vailed in  the  Apostolic  Church.1  The  success  of  this 
early  mission  does  not  seem  to  have  been  great.  Christ, 
however,  repeats  the  experiment  on  a  larger  scale.  He 
sends  out  seventy  and  empowers  them  to  heal  the  sick 
that  are  in  any  city  into  which  they  may  enter.3  On  the 
return  of  these  Evangelists  they  reported  that  even  the 
demons  were  subject  unto  them.8 

Again,  the  greatest  man  in  the  Apostolic  Church  was 
St.  Paul,  and  his  attitude  toward  this  question  is  valuable 
not  only  for  its  own  sake  but  for  the  light  it  throws  upon 
his  conception  of  Christ's  intention.  In  the  list  of  spir- 
itual gifts  with  which  the  Church  was  endowed,  he 
mentions  gifts  of  healing,4  and  he  claims  for  himself  won- 
der-working power.5  We  know  that  the  power  he  claimed 
he  freely  exercised.  If  it  were  possible  for  us  to  accept 
as  historical  the  Book  of  the  Acts  as  it  stands,  we  could 
point  to  such  a  narrative  as  that  which  relates  how 
handkerchiefs  or  aprons  that  had  touched  the  Apostle's 
body  were  carried  to  the  sick,  and  "the  diseases  de- 
parted from  them  and  the  evil  spirits  went  out."8  But  a 
great  number  of  modern  critics  refuse  to  accept  the  whole 
of  the  Acts  as  genuine  history.  Nevertheless  even  free 
critics  like  Weizsacker,  McGiffert,  and  Schmiedel  accept 

1  James  v.  14,  15.  *  I  Cor.  xii.  10,  28-30. 

•Luke  x.  8.  •!!  Cor.  xii.  11-12;  Rom.  xv.  18-19. 

•Luke  x.  17.  «xix  11-12. 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF  CHRIST          365 

as  genuine  history  the  "  We-passages,"  that  is,  those 
passages  in  the  later  portion  of  the  book  in  which  the 
writer  speaks  in  the  first  person  plural  as  though  he  were 
an  eye-witness  of  the  events  he  is  narrating.1  This  eye- 
witness it  is  now  generally  agreed  was  Luke,  "  the  beloved 
physician."  Now  it  so  happens  that  in  this  portion  of 
the  Acts  we  have  recorded  two  remarkable  curative  acts 
on  the  part  of  the  Apostle;  the  one  an  exorcism  of  a 
demon,  the  other  a  cure  of  dysentery.  At  Philippi  a 
girl  "having  a  spirit  of  divination"  (which  means  that 
in  all  probability  she  was  a  ventriloquist  and  therefore 
was  supposed  to  be  under  supernatural  influence),  fol- 
lowed Paul  and  his  companions  crying  the  while  that  they 
were  the  servants  of  the  Most  High  God.  But  the  Apostle, 
following  the  example  of  Christ,  refused  to  accept  commen- 
dation from  such  a  dubious  quarter  and,  turning  round, 
charged  the  demon  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  to  come 
out  of  her.  That  Paul  believed  in  the  reality  of  demons 
we  know  from  other  sources.2  The  other  incident  hap- 
pened at  Malta  where  he  was  shipwrecked  on  his  way  to 
Rome.3  "The  miraculous  cures  at  Malta,"  says  Weiz- 
sacker,  "are  an  historically  inseparable  portion  of  the 
Apostolic  life."  We  are  told  that  the  father  of  Publius, 
the  Governor  of  Malta,  lay  sick  of  fever  and  dysentery, 
unto  whom  Paul  entered  in  and  prayed  and,  "laying  his 
hands  on  him,  healed  him."  Then  follows  a  notable 
statement:  "And  when  this  was  done,  the  rest  also  that 
had  diseases  on  the  Island  came  and  were  cured;  who 
also  honored  us  with  many  honors."  Now  Harnack's 

1  Cp.  xvi.  10;  xx.  5;  xxvii.  i. 

2 1  Cor.  x.  20,  21.  »Acts  xxviii.  8-10. 


366  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

keen-sightedness  has  seen  that  the  Greek  word  rendered 
"were  cured"  would  be  more  aptly  translated  "received 
medical  attendance."  The  persons  thus  cured  showed 
their  appreciation  by  loading  Paul  and  his  companions 
with  rich  presents.  Here  then  embedded  in  a  section  of 
the  most  primitive  history,  a  section  which  has  stood  the 
tests  of  the  most  stringent  criticism  and  is  admitted  by 
all  scholars  as  genuine,  we  find  the  fundamental  principle 
for  which  we  have  been  contending  throughout  this  book 
—  Paid  the  Theologian,  and  Luke  the  Physician,  the  one 
•with  his  spiritual  power  and  his  commanding  personality, 
and  the  oilier  with  his  training  in  the  medical  schools,  join 
hands  for  the  alleviation  of  human  suffering.  From  all 
this,  it  is  clear  that  while  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles 
felt  himself  primarily  called  to  preach,  he  knew  that  Christ 
had  also  empowered  him  to  heal. 

Finally,  the  spurious  conclusion  of  St.  Mark's  Gospel,1 
which  probably  dates  from  an  early  part  of  the  second 
century,  does  not  indeed  give  us  genuine  words  of  Christ, 
but  does  enable  us  to  see  how  the  third  generation  of 
Christians  conceived  Christ's  purpose  as  to  the  exercise 
of  the  healing  gift.  "And  these  signs  shall  accompany 
them  that  believe;  in  my  Name  shall  they  cast  out  demons; 
.  .  .  they  shall  lay  hands  on  the  sick  and  they  shall 
recover."  In  spite  of  the  belief  in  thaumaturgy  reflected 
in  the  claim  to  be  able  to  take  up  serpents  and  drink  any 
deadly  thing  without  the  slightest  hurt,  we  have  in  this 
passage  a  genuine  witness  to  the  traditional  belief  of  the 
early  Church.  For  centuries,  as  we  have  seen,2  this 

1  This  conclusion  is  separated  from  the  genuine  text  in  the  Revised 
Version  by  a  space.  2  See  pp.  296-299. 


THE  HEALING  WONDERS  OF  CHRIST          367 

belief  had  the  most  powerful  influence  on  Church  life 
and  custom,  and  was  an  influential  factor  in  the  Chris- 
tian propaganda.  Nor  has  it  ever  wholly  died  out  of  the 
consciousness  of  the  Church.  A  great  succession  of 
eminent  men  has  kept  it  alive  through  the  ages  in  spite 
of  the  unbelief  and  indifference  of  the  great  mass  of  Chris- 
tians. Paul,  Origen,  Augustine,  Francis  of  Assisi,  Luther, 
Swedenborg,  John  Wesley,  Irving  —  that  noble  friend  of 
Carlyle  in  whose  meteoric  ministry  all  London  rejoiced 
for  a  season  —  Bengel,  Erskine  of  Linlathen,  Bushnell 
—  these  men  believed  that  the  Church  was  never  nearer 
the  realization  of  the  mind  of  Christ  than  when  engaged 
in  healing  the  sick;  nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  the 
honored  and  historical  Church  of  the  Waldenses  has  pre- 
served this,  among  other  primitive  traditions,  till  our  own 
time.  Professor  Du  Bose,  whose  sane  and  conservative 
temper  gives  weight  to  his  words,  suggestively  remarks: 
"Assuredly  there  is  more  to  be  accomplished  than  our 
religion  or  our  science  have  accomplished  for  the  spiritual 
and  the  natural  ills  of  mankind  through  the  mind  and 
through  the  faith  of  men.  On  the  part  of  religion,  may 
it  not  be  from  a  lack  of  mental  and  spiritual  suscepti- 
bility on  our  part,  the  absence  of  a  due  response  of  mind 
and  heart,  that  the  truth  and  the  love  of  God  do  not 
work  greater  wonders  in  our  lives,  not  only  spiritual  and 
moral,  but  physical  also?  May  it  not  be  one  more  of 
the  many  reproaches  of  our  Christianity  as  it  is  that 
many  have  to  go  outside,  if  not  of  it,  yet  of  its  organized 
fellowship,  to  find  that  power  of  God  unto  salvation  of 
soul  and  body  which  was  its  promise  to  us."  l  And 

» The  Gospel  in  the  Gospels,  pp.  81,  82. 


368  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

again:  "They  (those  who  were  healed)  were  the  sub- 
jects and  not  merely  the  objects  of  His  power.  He 
carried  them  along  with  Himself  in  their  healing.  On 
their  part  it  was  mind  or  heart  or  faith  healing.  He  told 
them  to  be  well,  to  arise  and  walk,  to  look  up  and  see. 
And  they  did  it.  Could  not  we  in  many  ways  do  it  too, 
if  only  we  would  believe  and  know?  "  l  We  do  not  plead 
for  any  return  to  the  mere  accidents  of  the  life  of  the  primi- 
tive Church,  but  we  do  plead  for  a  return  to  her  spirit  and, 
so  far  as  modern  conditions  will  permit,  to  the  manifesta- 
tion of  that  spirit.  Armed  with  the  resources  of  modern 
science,  and  more  especially  of  modern  psychological 
science,  inspired  with  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity  which 
is  the  grand  legacy  bequeathed  her  by  the  Founder  of  our 
faith,  the  Church  of  to-day  should  be  able  to  outdo  the 
wonders  of  the  Apostolic  and  the  post- Apostolic  Age,  and 
in  a  new  and  a  grander  sense  to  win  the  world  for  Him 
Who  came  to  take  its  infirmities  and  to  bear  its  sick- 
nesses. 

1  Ibid.,  p.  83.  We  owe  these  references  to  the  Rev.  Lyman  Powell, 
of  Northampton,  Mass.  The  entire  chapter  on  "  The  Authority  of 
Jesus  "  will  repay  attentive  reading. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE  OUTLOOK  OF  THE  CHURCH 

THE  religious  world  to-day  is  confronted  by  a  very 
curious  condition.  We  discern  a  general  quickening  of 
faith  and  a  renewal  of  interest  in  religion  on  the  one  side, 
and  a  diminution  of  the  influence  of  the  Church  on  the 
other.  Both  these  statements  may  be  denied  by  persons 
who  are  not  on  intimate  terms  with  the  thought  and  ten- 
dencies of  their  own  times.  The  men  who  are  really 
doing  the  work  of  the  Church  will  allow  their  truth.  We 
are  moreover  obliged  to  admit  this  new  and  deplorable 
fact,  that  many  of  those  who  have  withdrawn  from  the 
Church  and  who  refuse  to  tread  her  courts  are  not  the 
frivolous  or  the  immoral,  but  men  and  women  as  much 
in  love  with  the  person  and  the  purposes  of  Jesus  Christ 
as  we  are,  and  who  no  longer  associate  themselves  with 
the  Church  because  they  believe  they  can  realize  His 
ideals  outside  the  Church  better  than  through  its  instru- 
mentality. We  are  far  from  affirming  that  this  is  always 
the  case  with  these  recusants.  Many  doubtless  are  led 
away,  as  Jesus  foretold,  by  love  of  this  present  world, 
and  because  they  are  so  engrossed  in  material  things 
and  sensual  pleasures  that  they  no  longer  care  for  any- 
thing that  is  great.  As  Goethe  said,  "When  we  have 
attained  the  good  things  of  this  world,  it  is  so  easy  to 
regard  those  of  the  next  as  a  delusion  and  snare."  Many 

"  369 


370  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

are  deterred  from  entering  the  Church  by  honest  intellec- 
tual scruples  and  difficulties,  and  for  these  the  Church 
has  a  heavy  responsibility.  But  it  is  safe  to  say  that  if 
the  Church,  which  is  the  natural  home  of  the  Christian 
religion,  declines,  while  humanity  itself  progresses,  such 
a  decline  can  have  but  one  cause,  namely,  that  the  Church 
is  not  doing  her  whole  duty.  A  large  and  ever-increasing 
number  of  intelligent  persons  feels  that  the  Church  has 
outgrown  or  is  outgrowing  her  usefulness.  Why  do  they 
feel  thus?  Because  the  Church  is  no  longer  indispens- 
able to  men.  Unquestionably,  as  we  have  said  more  than 
once,  one  of  the  great  motives  of  all  human  belief  is  the 
Practical  Motive,  —  believing  because  it  is  good  and 
useful  to  believe.  The  good  religion  has  done  the  world 
and  still  is  doing  is  one  of  the  chief  reasons  why  man  be- 
lieves hi  religion;  and  the  more  good  any  particular  relig- 
ion or  church  is  able  to  do,  the  more  men  will  believe 
in  it,  and  the  less  visible  good  the  Church  does,  the  less 
men  will  believe  in  it. 

The  reason  why  men  were  swept  into  the  Church  by 
nations  and  races  during  the  first  glorious  centuries  of 
its  existence  was  because  they  found  in  the  Church  some- 
thing which  they  could  find  nowhere  else,  an  ardent  love, 
a  living  faith,  the  source  of  innumerable  moral  regenera- 
tions. The  Christian  religion  began  its  mission  to  the 
world  with  an  enormous  sense  of  spiritual  power.  With 
the  image  of  Jesus  constantly  before  it,  and  taking  its 
stand  at  the  very  center  of  the  universe,  the  soul  of  man, 
the  Church  had  gifts  to  bestow,  gifts  for  all.  In  those 
days  no  one  touched  the  religion  without  being  trans- 
formed by  it.  "The  Lord  added  unto  the  Church  daily 


THE  OUTLOOK  OF  THE  CHURCH      371 

such  as  should  be  saved."  He  that  was  in  Christ  felt 
himself  a  new  creature.  The  watchword  was,  "Let 
every  one  who  nameth  the  name  of  Christ  depart  from 
iniquity."  It  is  true,  the  Church  of  late,  especially  the 
Episcopal  Church,  has  done  much  to  postpone  the  evil 
day  by  a  perfectly  sincere  sympathy  with  the  sorrows 
and  the  hardships  of  mankind,  and  by  an  earnest  and 
successful  effort  to  improve  the  lot  of  those  to  whom  life 
has  been  severe.  Although  we  are  thinking  of  other 
matters  at  this  moment,  we  must  pause  to  call  attention 
to  the  great  importance  of  this  social  movement.  Those 
religions  which  have  conquered  for  themselves  a  follow- 
ing and  which  have  deeply  touched  the  heart  of  mankind 
have  done  so  by  attacking  social  evils  rather  than  theo- 
logical problems.  This  is  as  true  of  the  early  triumphs 
of  Buddhism  as  it  is  true  of  Christianity.  Both  religions 
found  themselves  confronted  with  a  colossal  task  in  the 
reclamation  of  the  sunken  and  in  consoling  the  griefs 
of  mankind,  and  the  love  which  they  elicited  and  shed 
abroad  has  gained  for  them  the  undying  gratitude  of 
humanity.  Persons  who  prophesy  the  downfall  of  the 
Church  would  do  well  to  reflect  on  this  fact.  So  long  as 
the  Church  is  animated  by  the  divine  charity  of  Jesus 
Christ,  it  can  never  fall,  for  the  reason  that  in  this  cold 
and  selfish  world  there  is  nothing  else  to  take  its  place. 
No  detective  work,  no  sullen  muttering  about  altruism, 
can  supplant  divine  love.  Yet  we  affirm  that  the  Church 
of  Christ  cannot  permanently  uphold  and  propagate 
itself  by  anything  less  spiritual,  less  comprehensive  and 
tremendous  than  the  Christian  religion,  and  the  plain 
truth  is  that  the  Church  is  not  bringing  the  whole  force 


372  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

of  the  Christian  religion  to  bear  upon  the  lives  of  the 
people.  Like  other  men  who  have  seriously  labored  in 
the  field  of  social  endeavor,  we  feel  its  limitations.  The 
people  are  very  willing  to  accept  what  we  have  to  give 
them  in  the  way  of  fine  parish  buildings,  libraries,  gym- 
nasia, music,  trade-schools,  art  classes,  and  even  baths. 
But  the  best  that  the  Christian  Church  has  to  offer  men 
is  the  new  life  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  this  all  our  social  en- 
deavors do  not  seem  to  make  people  especially  anxious  to 
receive  at  our  hands.  We  have  heard  many  of  the  ablest 
and  most  conscientious  clergymen  of  our  Church  confess 
with  sorrow  that  they  arc  doing  this  work  with  a  sense 
of  humiliation  and  despondency  because  they  do  not  feel 
that  they  are  giving  their  people  the  best  they  have  to 
give.  Of  one  thing  we  may  be  very  sure :  unless  we  soon 
find  a  way  to  unite  faith  to  charity,  that  is,  to  infuse  our 
social  work  with  a  more  religious  spirit,  it  will  be  taken 
from  us  and  given  to  others.  This  has  happened  again  and 
again  with  the  Church's  creations  and  it  will  take  place 
once  more.  The  Social  Settlement  and  the  People's  Insti- 
tute can  do  this  work  in  many  respects  better  than  we 
can,  and  unless  we  possess  some  prerogative  which  they 
do  not  possess,  it  will  pass  to  them.  The  great  defect  of 
the  social  movement  in  the  Church  is  that  it  is  not  suffi- 
ciently personal,  spiritual,  and  ethical.  It  can  change  the 
environment,  but  as  yet  it  seems  to  have  no  means  of 
changing  the  heart.  It  can  help  men  in  the  bulk,  but  it 
has  no  direct  access  to  the  depth  of  the  individual  con- 
science. We  therefore  venture  to  believe  that  the  social 
movement  will  soon  be  supplemented  by  a  psychical 
movement  which  speaks  in  the  name  of  Christ  to  the  souL 


THE  OUTLOOK  OF  THE  CHURCH      373 

Another  very  significant  sign  of  the  times  is  our  weari- 
ness of  a  continued  sectarian  existence.  There  remain, 
of  course,  stalwart  partisans  in  all  churches,  but  the  better 
men  of  all  denominations  have  ceased  to  glory  in  the  things 
which  separate  us,  and  they  are  fixing  their  eyes  on  the 
great  essentials  of  religion  which  unite  us.  Most  of  the 
Protestant  churches  set  out  with  exclusive  claims  of 
enlightenment  and  excellence.  This,  however,  was  the 
result  of  passion  or  of  logic  and  it  forms  no  part  of  the 
Christian  consciousness  which  refuses  to  accept  a  defi- 
nition of  the  true  Christian  Church  that  excludes  true 
Christians.  Time  has  cooled  our  passions,  and  to-day 
logic,  not  to  say  self-preservation,  points  us  toward  unity, 
not  toward  division.  During  the  past  two  years  the 
writer  has  met  perhaps  a  larger  number  of  clergymen 
of  all  denominations  than  during  the  preceding  fifteen 
years  of  his  ministry.  He  has  asked  a  great  many  of 
these  gentlemen,  "Do  you  look  forward  to  any  great 
future  for  your  church  in  this  country?"  and  with  few 
exceptions  the  answer  has  been:  "I  can  see  no  future 
for  my  church,  but  I  believe  that  there  is  a  future  for 
Christianity."  What  is  keeping  us  apart  to-day  is  neither 
reason  nor  utility;  it  is  only  the  tenacious  grip  of  the 
expiring  Traditional  Motive  which  acts  in  religion  pre- 
cisely as  the  law  of  heredity  acts  in  the  domain  of  nature, 
i.e.,  it  transmits  existing  types.  Since  engaging  in  our 
new  work,  we  have  been  gratified  to  observe  what  a 
powerful  solvent  this  new  interest  has  proved  and  hi  what 
pleasant  ties  of  fellowship  it  has  united  Christians  for- 
merly estranged.  Not  only  do  members  of  all  Protestant 
churches  worship  with  us  freely  and  constantly,  but  Roman 


374  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

Catholics  and  Israelites  also  take  part  in  our  services 
with  the  approval  of  their  priests  and  ministers.  This 
small  object  lesson  indicates  how  quickly  the  superficial 
differences  which  separate  Protestant  Christianity  will 
disappear  so  soon  as  a  new  and  powerful  motive  in  relig- 
ion which  affects  us  all  equally  shall  begin  to  make  itself 
felt.  The  chief  cause  of  our  present  condition  is  not 
discord  and  hatred;  it  is  mere  apathy  due  to  the  general 
deadness  of  the  churches.  When  the  light  and  warmth 
of  a  new  day  begin  to  animate  us,  then  this  coating  of  ice 
will  melt  and  the  waters  will  flow  and  mingle. 

One  cause  of  our  present  enfeebled  condition  is  the 
fact  that  the  Church  through  timidity,  through  sloth, 
through  lack  of  enterprise,  through  inability  to  adjust 
herself  to  new  conditions,  has  allowed  herself  to  be  side- 
tracked and  relegated  to  a  small  and  secondary  r61e  in 
human  affairs.  When  we  look  back  to  the  so-called  ages 
of  faith,  to  the  days  when  the  Church  was  everything, 
what  amazes  us  most  is  the  skill  and  wisdom  with  which 
she  spread  herself  over  the  whole  sphere  of  human  life, 
entering  every  domain  of  human  activity,  leading  every 
great  movement  of  the  human  spirit.  In  those  days  all 
religion,  knowledge,  science,  art,  philosophy,  and  even 
the  chief  pleasures  of  life  were  in  her  keeping.  When 
people  went  to  the  theater  it  was  to  witness  the  mysteries 
of  the  Christian  religion.  When  they  traveled,  it  was 
to  go  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Christ's  tomb.  From  the  cradle 
to  the  grave,  on  week-days  and  Sundays,  the  Church  sur- 
rounded human  life.  Nothing  of  importance  went  on 
outside  her  borders.  Therefore  people  believed  with  a 
devotion  and  an  intensity  of  faith  of  which  we  have  no 


THE  OUTLOOK  OF  THE  CHURCH      375 

comprehension;  and  if  the  Church  did  much  evil  in  those 
days,  let  us  also  remember  that  she  did  much  good.  In 
those  centuries  she  brought  the  noblest  races  of  the  new 
world  to  maturity.  Nor  ought  the  abuses  of  the  Church 
ever  to  be  mentioned  without  recognition  of  the  savage 
and  barbarous  condition  of  the  society  in  which  she  was 
planted. 

The  Protestant  Churches,  however,  beginning  with 
but  small  experience  in  the  great  practical  art  of  subduing 
and  subjugating  man  which  the  old  Church  knew  so  well, 
and  fearful  of  the  corruptions  of  the  past,  attempted  tc 
cut  themselves  off  from  all  these  things  and  to  establish 
themselves  on  dogmas  and  doctrines.  They  were  all 
more  or  less  puritanical.  They  withdrew  more  and  more 
from  the  world.  They  broke  with  science,  art,  literature. 
They  created  an  impossible  theory  of  Scripture,  and  hav- 
ing struck  the  manacles  of  human  tradition  from  their 
hands  they  proceeded  at  once  to  forge  new  fetters.  Be- 
lievers regarded  themselves  as  a  peculiar  people  and  before 
long  the  world  regarded  them  as  very  peculiar  people 
in  which  it  took  but  little  interest.  For  awhile  the  old 
dogmas,  and  especially  bitter  hatred  for  Rome,  united 
them,  and  gave  them  an  issue,  but  as  interest  in  these 
subsided,  the  Protestant  churches  were  hard  pressed  for 
an  issue,  and  for  many  years  they  have  been  like  spirits 
seeking  a  body. 

In  reality  what  has  happened  to  us  is  what  has  hap- 
pened to  other  historical  religions  behind  which  stands  a 
single  great  person.  As  time  has  passed,  the  splendor 
of  that  personality  has  been  dimmed.  His  ideals  have 
been  forgotten,  the  gold  of  his  words  buried  beneath 


376  RELIGION  AND   MEDICINE 

the  dust  of  tradition.  And  with  the  obscuring  of  the 
person  and  ideals  of  the  founder,  the  mighty  moral  im- 
pulse communicated  by  him  to  the  world  has  lost  itself. 
A  religion  so  beset  has  but  one  chance  to  re-establish 
itself,  that  is,  by  a  return  to  its  founder.  If  it  can  find  him, 
and  salvation  in  him,  it  may  yet  live.  Now  in  both  these 
respects  we  are  better  off  than  any  generation  of  Chris- 
tians has  been  since  the  Apostolic  Age.  The  greatest 
discovery  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  the  discovery  of 
Jesus  Christ.  We  possess  a  knowledge  of  the  character 
and  purpose  of  Jesus  which  no  previous  age  has  enjoyed, 
and  the  impression  made  on  us  by  His  amazing  image 
is  hardly  less  than  that  which  it  once  produced  on  a 
certain  Saul  of  Tarsus.  It  would  seem  as  if  all  the  inter- 
vening centuries  of  growing  knowledge,  of  doubt,  of  long- 
ing for  God's  face  had  only  increased  our  desire  to  see 
once  more  the  days  of  the  Son  of  Man.  Apparently  He 
possessed  and  He  offered  to  the  world  no  repellent,  diffi- 
cult dogmas,  but  He  revealed  God  to  man,  and  man  to 
himself.  He  united  men  in  the  only  two  points  of 
view  in  which  they  can  be  united  —  in  love  and  trust  of 
a  good  God  —  and  in  affection  to  one  another.  That 
no  one  had  done  before  Him;  that  no  one  could  do  after 
Him,  for  He  had  done  it.  And  there  is  no  other  way; 
there  is  no  peace  for  our  souls  except  the  peace  of  God. 
No  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  possible  except  the  Kingdom 
of  good  hearts  united  by  love.  In  Him  Heaven  and  earth 
were  united  in  friendship. 

When  we  attempt  to  ascertain  how  Jesus  expected  to 
realize  His  sublime  dream  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  we 
are  confronted  by  this  fact:  if  He  gave  his  heart  wholly 


377 

to  God,  He  gave  His  life  wholly  to  man.  So  with  the 
new  heaven  came  a  new  earth.  He  did  not  anticipate 
that  the  great  ideal  could  be  made  actual  merely  by 
announcing  it.  With  Immanuel  Kant  He  declared  the 
problem  of  the  universe  insoluble  to  speculative  reason, 
but  soluble  to  practical  reason.  From  morning  to  night 
He  was  surrounded  by  human  beings  with  human  needs, 
and  He  shrank  from  none,  not  even  from  the  poor  prosti- 
tute who  wished  to  kiss  His  feet.  Herein  is  a  wonderful 
thing,  a  key  to  the  religion  of  Christ  which  we  have  lost. 
Here  was  this  Being,  call  Him  Son  of  God  or  Son  of  Man 
as  you  choose,  with  His  infinite  mission  to  the  world  and 
with  the  haunting  sense  of  impending  doom.  Here  were 
these  few  fleeting  years  which  were  all  He  had  at  his 
disposal  to  make  the  eternal  revelation  of  God,  to  found 
His  Church,  to  gather  His  congregation  and  to  educate 
His  Apostles  that  they  might  be  able  to  continue  His 
work.  How  will  He  spend  them?  In  lonely  retirement 
from  the  world,  in  rapt  meditation,  in  long  thought? 
In  looking  at  His  actual  life,  one  would  suppose  that  He 
had  no  thought  except  for  the  passing  day,  no  care  ex- 
cept for  the  sick,  the  sinful,  the  sorrowful,  the  seeker 
who  claimed  His  every  hour.  But  this  was  no  accident. 
It  was  first  the  natural,  unavoidable  expression  of  the 
disposition  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  secondly,  such  a  religion 
as  His  could  have  come  into  being  in  no  other  way. 
The  genius  of  Christianity  is  its  fidelity  to  the  permanent 
needs  of  human  nature.  Shakespeare,  Goethe,  Balzac 
have  marvelously  exploited  human  life.  Jesus  went 
deeper.  Thanks  to  the  peculiar  simplicity  of  His 
mind,  the  delicate  clairvoyance  of  His  perception  and  the 


378  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

all-comprehending  sympathy  of  His  heart,  He  has  shown 
us  not  only  what  man  is,  but  what  under  God's  fostering 
care  he  may  become.  With  more  justice  than  Terence 
He  might  have  said:  "Homo  sum;  humani  nihil  a  me 
alienum  puto";  and  such  knowledge  as  He  possessed 
could  have  been  gained  in  no  other  way  than  by  the  life 
He  led.  We  are  in  a  position  to  testify  to  the  effect  His 
consoling,  healing  utterances  have  on  diseased  and  dis- 
tracted minds  on  which  Christ's  words  fall  like  dew  from 
Heaven.  The  reason  of  this  is  that  Jesus  was  ever  in 
association  with  such  persons  and  had  them  constantly 
on  His  mind. 

Those  who  know  Jesus  know  that  there  is  salvation  in 
Him  and  no  salvation  without  Him.  He  is  the  Being, 
as  even  David  Strauss  affirmed,  without  Whose  presence 
in  the  heart  true  piety  is  impossible.  Now  one  of  the 
proofs  of  the  divine  origin  of  our  religion  is  its  indestruct- 
ible vitality.  No  sooner  does  the  world  dispose  of  one 
of  the  claims  of  Jesus  Christ  than  Christ  presents  a  new 
claim  of  which  hitherto  the  world  had  not  thought,  and 
the  disposal  of  the  several  claims  of  the  Lord  Jesus  con- 
stitutes the  moral  education  of  humanity.  The  Chris- 
tianity the  world  has  outgrown  is  a  Christianity  which 
Christ  had  outgrown  long  before,  rather  it  is  a  garment 
which  never  fitted  Him.  The  truths  of  reason,  far  from 
obscuring  His  truths,  only  make  them  shine  with  new 
luster  because  they  make  us  better  able  to  appreciate 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  During  the  past  generation 
the  best  thinkers  of  the  world  have  been  coming  to  a  new 
conclusion  in  regard  to  man.  The  substance  of  this 
thought  is  its  recognition  of  the  essential  unity  of  human 


THE  OUTLOOK  OF  THE  CHURCH      379 

nature.  It  does  not  sacrifice  the  soul  to  the  body  like 
the  older  materialism.  It  does  not  seek  to  dissipate  this 
compact  and  marvelous  human  frame  into  a  mere  idea, 
like  Christian  Science,  nor  to  represent  it  as  a  garment 
of  the  soul  as  does  the  so-called  New  Thought.  But 
it  regards  body  and  soul  together  as  essential  to  the  integ- 
rity of  human  nature,  and  it  points  out  the  innumerable 
correspondences  and  points  of  contact  between  the  two. 
While  ignoring  no  fact  of  biology,  chemistry,  physics, 
or  sociology,  it  passes  through  them  and  behind  them  to 
the  eternal  and  spiritual  in  man.  It  recognizes  the  truth 
that  for  every  event  hi  the  mind  there  is  an  event  in  the 
body,  that  the  simplest  emotion  or  thought  is  accompanied 
by  an  expenditure  of  nervous  energy,  and  that  no  good 
or  evil  can  come  to  man  which  does  not  affect  the  whole 
man,  body,  soul,  and  spirit.  In  short,  it  proves  in  a 
thousand  ways  not  merely  how  the  body  affects  the  mind, 
but  how  the  mind  reacts  on  the  body. 

What  interests  the  Christian  in  these  conceptions  is 
their  appropriation  of  the  habitual  thought  of  Christ. 
We  remember  that  Jesus  recognized  human  nature  hi 
its  entirety,  that  in  His  solicitude  for  the  soul  He  did  not 
forget  the  body  and  that  in  giving  peace  to  the  conscience 
He  also  gave  health  to  the  whole  man.  This  noble  truth 
has  long  been  allowed  to  drop  from  the  Church's  concep- 
tion of  its  mission,  but  it  will  not  be  ignored  much  longer. 
Everywhere  men  and  women  are  seeking  for  this  lost 
truth  and  hence,  as  in  the  days  of  the  Son  of  Man,  we 
see  the  same  feverish  anxiety,  the  same  willingness  to 
follow  almost  any  false  Messiah  who  promises  to  restore 
it  to  them.  Everywhere  men  and  women  are  feeling 


380  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

and  apprehending,  however  dimly,  that  the  religion 
taught  and  practised  by  the  churches  is  not  the  whole 
religion  of  Christ;  hence  we  see,  on  one  side,  a  wholesale 
defection  to  strange  cults  and  institutions  which,  with  all 
their  aberrations,  hold  up  the  promise  of  immediate  help 
to  the  whole  man,  and  on  the  other  hand  we  observe  a 
growing  apathy  and  indifference  toward  the  Church.  In 
short,  it  is  plain  to  the  unprejudiced  student  of  religion 
that  one  cause  of  the  Church's  present  weakness  is  that 
the  Church  has  mutilated  the  Christian  religion,  retain- 
ing with  some  degree  of  faith  Christ's  message  to  the  soul, 
but  rejecting  with  unbelief  His  ministry  to  the  body. 
But,  as  a  student  of  the  New  Testament,  I  affirm  that  if 
any  portion  of  the  Gospel  is  true  and  authentic,  it  is  that 
part  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels  which  describes  Christ's 
healing  ministry,  His  commission  to  His  disciples  to  heal 
the  sick  and  to  cast  out  devils,  and  which  portrays  His 
general  manner  of  life.  These  stories  are  in  themselves 
so  natural,  so  exquisitely  probable,  so  supported  by  in- 
ternal and  external  evidence  and  by  authentic  sayings, 
that  if  we  surrender  them  we  must  surrender  with  them 
all  real  knowledge  of  Jesus,  His  life  and  His  teachings. 
But  when  to-day,  with  our  own  eyes,  we  see  so  many  of 
these  scenes  re-enacted,  so  many  of  the  same  diseases 
cured  by  means  of  faith  and  the  authoritative  word,  such 
a  spirit  of  scepticism  and  incredulity  becomes  doubly  and 
trebly  absurd.  The  writer  ventures  to  say  that  within 
five  years  contemporary  evidence  will  be  offered  which 
will  change  the  attitude  of  the  educated  world  on  the 
subject  of  Christ's  acts  of  healing.  St.  John,  or  the  author 
of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  habitually  called  these  healing 


THE  OUTLOOK  OF  THE  CHURCH      381 

wonders  "signs"  (semeia),  that  is  to  say,  proofs  of  a  living 
faith  and  of  a  present  spiritual  power,  and  it  is  precisely 
in  this  light  that  we  regard  them.  We  do  not  consider 
restoration  to  health  as  in  itself  the  end  and  aim  of  relig- 
ion, but  we  do  affirm  that  the  face  of  the  Lord  is  ever 
set  in  the  direction  of  the  health  and  happiness  'of  His 
children,  that  God  does  not  take  pleasure  in  sickness  and 
suffering,  but  has  means  to  remove  our  anguish,  that 
faith  and  trust  in  God  bring  peace  to  the  heart,  that  the 
moral  life  powerfully  affects  the  physical  life,  and  that 
if  these  blessings  are  really  contained  in  our  religion  it  is 
a  pity  that  we  should  not  enjoy  them. 

Perhaps  a  greater  evil  than  that  to  which  allusion  has 
been  made  is  the  weakening  and  conventionalizing  of  all 
our  religious  conceptions.  For  this  the  Church  is  not 
particularly  to  blame.  It  is  the  fate  of  all  noble  ideas 
to  lose  their  nobility  and  to  be  shorn  of  their  glory  when 
they  are  generally  accepted  by  common  minds.  Yet 
how  many  conscientious  and  faithful  ministers  are  doing 
their  work  to-day  with  a  sense  of  depression  and  of  fail- 
ure because  their  people  will  not  accept  at  their  hands 
the  best  and  highest  they  have  to  give?  How  many  able 
and  religious  young  men  are  deterred  from  entering  the 
ministry  because  they  perceive  that  they  can  serve  God 
better  and  find  freer  employment  of  their  higher  faculties 
hi  some  other  profession?  Many  persons  like  to  go  to 
church  and  they  are  glad  to  cultivate  pleasant  social  rela- 
tions with  their  clergymen,  but  the  idea  that  there  is  any 
power  in  the  Church  to  save  them,  or  in  the  minister  as 
the  representative  of  Christ,  does  not  occur  to  them.  If 
they  are  ill,  they  send  for  their  physician,  if  they  desire 


382  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

advice  on  important  matters,  they  consult  their  lawyer; 
but  the  clergyman  is  as  a  rule  excluded  from  the  serious 
and  great  events  of  life  which  require  special  knowledge, 
higher  wisdom  or  peculiar  ability  to  help,  and  this  through 
no  discourtesy,  but  through  a  tacit  assumption  that  there 
is  no  help  in  him.  He  has  even  been  banished  very  largely 
from  the  sick-room  which  used  to  be  his  peculiar  domain, 
because  he  is  associated  in  the  minds  of  the  sick  with 
the  thought  of  death,  not  of  life.  "So  'a  cried  out  God, 
God,  God,  three  or  four  times.  Now  I  to  comfort  him 
bid  him  'a  should  not  think  of  God;  I  hoped  there  was 
no  need  to  trouble  himself  with  any  such  thoughts  yet." 
The  chief  satisfaction  we  have  found  in  the  work  which 
we  are  attempting  to  describe  is  that  it  has  indefinitely 
increased  our  usefulness.  Instead  of  sustaining  merely 
conventional  relations  with  people,  our  relations  have 
been  sacred  and  delightful.  For  we  have  been  called 
upon  to  help  and  permitted  to  help  hi  the  real  and  serious 
business  of  life.  We  have  passed  through  the  deep  waters 
with  hundreds  upon  hundreds  of  men  and  women.  We 
have  stood  between  them  and  temptation,  between  them 
and  despair,  between  them  and  death.  We  have  had 
the  supreme  satisfaction  of  using  constantly  our  highest 
faculties  and  of  exerting  our  utmost  power  in  behalf  of 
our  people  in  their  hour  of  need.  The  response  to  our 
invitation  has  been  overwhelming,  altogether  beyond 
our  expectation  or  merit.  The  mere  knowledge  that 
disinterested  clergymen  and  physicians  are  willing  to  be 
consulted  in  regard  to  the  conduct  of  life  and  as  to  life 
as  a  whole  has  brought  persons  to  us  in  such  numbers 
that  although  our  staff  numbers  eight  men,  we  are 


THE  OUTLOOK  OF  THE  CHURCH      383 

unable  to  see  one  person  in  four  who  wishes  to  come  to  us, 
even  for  a  single  conversation.  If  there  is  so  great  a 
demand  for  spiritual  guidance  and  moral  help,  it  would 
seem  as  if  there  ought  to  be  clergymen  at  least  in  every 
large  city  who  are  able  and  willing  to  bestow  it,  that  we 
should  not  be  overwhelmed,  and  that  people  ought  not 
to  be  obliged  to  travel  hundreds  of  miles  to  attend  the 
simplest  of  services  and  to  obtain  the  aid  they  might  just 
as  well  receive  at  home.  To  be  sure  clergymen  are  busy, 
but  after  all,  in  what  can  a  clergyman  occupy  his  time 
to  greater  advantage  than  in  reproducing  the  life  of  His 
Master  and  in  saving  not  merely  souls,  but  men  and 
women  and  also  children?  Ill-informed  persons  have 
expressed  apprehension  that  the  work  we  are  doing  may 
obscure  the  purely  spiritual  ideal  of  the  Gospel,  but  what 
has  charmed  us  in  it  is  that  it  has  enabled  us  to  •  com- 
municate spiritual  life  and  a  living  faith  in  God  and  Christ 
to  hundreds  of  persons  who  had  remained  untouched  by 
religion  and  whom  we  could  have  reached  in  no  other 
way. 

Perhaps  I  can  express  what  I  mean  by  our  conventional 
attitude  toward  religion  by  an  old  Oriental  legend  I  once 
read  in  regard  to  Alexander  the  Great.  A  barbaric 
king  once  made  Alexander  a  present  of  three  great  dogs 
of  ancient  family  and  of  priceless  merit.  One  day  Alex- 
ander was  amusing  himself  in  his  park  and,  wishing  to 
test  the  mettle  of  these  animals,  he  set  one  of  them  in 
pursuit  of  a  stag.  To  the  king's  great  disgust,  the  noble 
dog  looked  at  it,  yawned,  and  lay  down  to  sleep  again. 
Alexander,  being  angry,  had  him  killed.  He  then  tried 
the  second  and  the  third  dog  which  behaved  in  exactly 


384  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

the  same  manner  and  accordingly  they,  too,  were  put  to 
death.  After  a  few  days  the  barbarian  chieftain  came 
to  inquire  after  the  welfare  of  his  favorites  and  Alexander 
told  him  what  he  had  done,  and  the  chieftain,  moved  to 
tears,  cried  out:  "Oh!  Alexander,  you  have  done  a  great 
wrong.  You  set  free  a  stag  and  a  deer,  and  they  paid  no 
heed,  but  if  you  had  let  loose  a  lion  and  a  tiger  you  would 
have  seen  what  dogs  I  had  given  you."  The  Christian 
religion  is  a  great  social  institution.  It  despises  no  under- 
taking, no  matter  how  humble,  that  is  intended  to  benefit 
man,  but  its  quarry  is  the  soul,  it  concerns  itself  only 
with  great  things.  Like  Lao  Tze,  the  Founder  of  Chris- 
tianity might  have  said:  "My  religion  is  to  think  the  un- 
thinkable thought,  to  speak  the  ineffable  word,  to  do  the 
impossible  deed,  to  walk  the  impassable  way."  His 
religion  is  not  less  than  when  He  delivered  it.  Spiritual 
truth  cannot  die.  It  is  our  faith  that  has  failed,  our  appre- . 
hension  of  the  power  of  our  religion  that  has  grown  weak. 
If  we  should  bring  our  deepest  wounds  to  Christ  to  be 
healed,  our  most  inveterate  habits  to  be  corrected,  our 
saddest  griefs  to  be  consoled  and  our  worst  sins  to  be 
forgiven,  we  should  soon  learn  what  a  religion  we  have. 
What  the  world  craves  to-day  is  a  salvation  that  really 
saves  and  that  begins  now.  What  men  desire  is  a  creed 
that  does  justice  to  soul  and  body.  What  men  are  look- 
ing for  is  a  faith  which  lifts  them  not  merely  above  sin 
but  above  temptation.  We  are  tired  of  renunciation,  we 
are  tired  of  sheltering  evil  impulses  and  of  resisting  them 
after  they  have  emerged  into  consciousness,  and  we  desire 
a  heart  that  is  free  from  evil,  a  will  that  is  one  with  God. 
If  we  can  attain  this  we  shall  find  in  it  new  life  for  the 


THE  OUTLOOK  OF  THE  CHURCH      385 

Church  and  for  the  world,  a  practical  reconciliation  be- 
tween jarring  sects,  between  real  religion  and  genuine 
science,  peace  for  the  soul  and  health  for  the  body.  To 
simplify  religion  is  not  to  destroy  it;  almost  always  it  is 
to  strengthen  it.  The  question  is,  can  we  find  this  in 
Christ? 

One  hundred  and  eight  years  ago  Friederich  Daniel 
Ernst  Schleiermacher  addressed  his  celebrated  Dis- 
courses on  the  Christian  Religion  to  the  Educated  among 
its  Contemners.  Without  presuming  for  an  instant  to 
compare  myself  with  that  illustrious  man,  I  venture  to 
address  this  appeal  to  the  educated,  to  the  scholarly  among 
the  friends  of  Christ  who  see  and  deplore  the  present 
condition  of  His  Church.  Again  and  again  in  the  course 
of  the  long  history  of  our  religion  the  Church  has  wan- 
dered from  the  living  way,  the  way  her  Founder  not  merely 
commanded  but  which  He  declared  Himself  to  be.  She 
has  been  encrusted  by  superstition,  seduced  by  worldly 
and  carnal  policy,  corrupted  by  sensuality,  withered  by 
rationalism,  and  at  times  she  has  borne  few  of  the  linea- 
ments of  her  heavenly  origin.  But  she  has  revived  and 
has  taken  up  again  her  divine  mission,  and  this  revival 
has  invariably  come  in  a  return  to  her  divine  Master. 
In  the  person  of  her  incomparable  Founder,  the  Church 
has  a  treasure  which  the  world  did  not  give  her  and  which 
it  cannot  take  away.  But  within  that  Personality  are 
contained  the  germs  of  ten  million  moral  regenerations 
and  renewed  life  for  the  world.  From  time  to  time  men 
have  arisen  like  Augustine,  Dominic,  Francis  of  Assisi, 
Wycliffe,  Savonarola,  Martin  Luther,  Boehme,  Tauler, 
Fox  and  his  Friends,  Wesley,  Schleiermacher,  Newman, 


386  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

Keble,  Fechner,  Harnack,  who,  as  the  author  of  John 
Inglesant,  says,  "have  shaken  the  earth  to  its  foundations 
and  have  drawn  thousands  into  the  ranks  of  Christ," 
and  they  have  done  so  by  returning  to  Jesus,  by  revealing 
Him  anew  to  their  contemporaries  and  by  interpreting 
His  mighty  purposes  in  term^  of  modern  life.  For  Chris- 
tianity, and  I  believe  for  the  world,  there  is  no  other  way, 
for  it  would  be  impossible  for  any  man  now  living  to  draw 
the  faint  imaginary  outline  of  the  third  religious  teacher 
who  should  be  able  to  follow  Moses  and  Jesus. 

For  nearly  a  generation  the  cry  has  been  raised,  "Back 
to  Jesus."  The  difficulty  is  that  no  one  has  yet  appeared 
who  can  show  us  the  way.  Yet  we  may  be  sure  the  way 
to  Jesus  is  a  living  way,  the  way  He  declared  Himself  to 
be.  By  this  I  mean  Christ  can  be  found,  Christ  can  be 
given  again  to  the  world,  not  by  antiquarian  study,  but 
only  by  visibly  reproducing  His  actual  life  in  our  midst 
and  by  the  fulfilment  of  the  purpose  He  set  Himself  in 
the  sense  in  which  He  undertook  it.  For  this  the  strength 
of  no  single  man  would  suffice.  But  is  there  not  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  friends  of  Christ  now  living  to  attempt 
this  task  by  united  effort?  I  ask  this  question  of  the 
Christian  community  with  the  utmost  seriousness.  Never 
perhaps  since  the  first  century  have  the  opportunities 
for  such  an  undertaking  been  so  favorable  as  they  are 
to-day.  We  are  confronted  with  these  two  conditions 
—  a  general  dissatisfaction  with  our  present  religious 
state  and  a  knowledge  and  appreciation  of  the  past  great- 
ness of  our  religion  such  as  no  previous  generation  has 
possessed.  For  more  than  a  century  the  necessary  pre- 
liminary studies  have  been  prosecuted  by  the  greatest 


THE  OUTLOOK  OF  THE  CHURCH      387 

scholars  of  the  world.  Shall  we  make  no  practical  use 
of  the  splendid  material  which  they  have  bequeathed  to 
us  ?  Is  it  likely  that  the  results  of  the  great  critical  move- 
ment, one  of  the  noblest  achievements  of  the  human  mind, 
shall  serve  no  other  purpose  than  to  satisfy  the  curiosity 
of  the  inquisitive?  May  we  not  hope  that  here  as  else- 
where, the  facts  and  principles  having  been  discovered, 
the  practical  application  will  follow?  In  any  case,  such 
an  attempt  to  reproduce  the  character,  purposes,  and 
methods  of  the  Divine  Redeemer,  if  it  were  seriously,  and 
honorably  made,  could  be  productive  only  of  incalculable 
good.  In  saying  this  I  do  not  of  course  dream  of  attempt- 
ing to  restore  the  temporal  conditions  of  Jesus'  life  or  of 
reviving  a  past  that  is  forever  passed  away.  Such  an 
attempt  would  be  childish;  the  hand  of  the  heavenly  clock 
cannot  be  turned  backward.  Since  the  time  of  Christ 
the  world  has  advanced  not  merely  hi  worldly  knowledge 
and  in  all  the  arts  of  life,  but  in  the  sanity  of  thought 
which  springs  from  a  rational  interpretation  of  the  phenom- 
ena of  the  universe.  All  these  things  we  thankfully  retain. 
There  is,  however,  in  Christ  something  which  we  have 
lost  and  for  which  all  our  worldly  knowledge  is  no  com- 
pensation, an  eternal  truth  which  is  as  applicable  to  this 
age  as  to  any  other,  a  knowledge  of  God,  a  life  in  God 
for  which  we  thirst  and  hunger,  a  single-hearted  desire 
to  serve  God  and  man  with  the  necessary  strength  to  do 
it,  the  simplicity  of  a  life  which  is  satisfied  with  the  one 
thing  needful,  an  abyss  of  saving  love  which  is  able  to 
take  away  the  sin  of  the  world.  This  timeless  element  in 
the  Gospel  is  what  we  might  recover  if  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  fearless  and  good  minds  would  lend  themselves  to 


388  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

the  task.  But  whether  or  not  any  general  movement  shall 
be  made  to  reproduce  the  life  of  Jesus,  this  I  know,  that  no 
human  being  can  come  into  His  presence,  or  act  in  His 
Spirit,  without  a  blessing.  We  have  shown  what  can  be 
done  in  one  single  direction  in  our  own  humble  venture. 
We  have  proved  that  this  small  attempt  to  follow  Him 
more  closely  and  to  obey  His  command  has  made  life 
and  religion  a  different  thing  to  ourselves  and  to  others. 
One  such  practical  demonstration  as  this  is  worth  a  library 
of  argument  and  discussion.  What  then  might  be  done 
if  a  sufficient  number  of  abler  and  better  men  should 
be  willing  to  consecrate  their  lives  to  this  purpose,  if  they 
would  take  up  the  infinite  problem  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
show  the  way? 


APPENDIX  I 

SOME  PHYSICAL  DISORDERS  HAVING  MENTAL  ORIGIN 

"All  good  things  are  ours,  nor  soul  helps  flesh  more  than  flesh 
helps  soul."  —  BROWNING. 

THE  mind  is  the  capital  city  where  the  consumers 
dwell,  those  law-makers  and  manufacturers  of  thought 
and  nervous  impulses.  The  body  is  the  outlying  coun- 
try. If  the  country  parts  are  well  tilled  and  cared  for 
by  the  farmers  or  makers  of  healthy  physical  conditions 
dwelling  in  this  outlying  country,  the  consumers  in  the 
capital  city  are  able  to  secure  what  they  need  to  satisfy 
the  wear  and  tear  incident  to  mental  effort  or  nervous 
stress  of  whatever  sort.  A  sound  body  waits  on  a  sound 
mind,  and  the  material  for  repair  of  the  nervous  system 
is  furnished  by  the  digestive  tract.  The  converse  of  this 
statement  has  long  been  known  to  be  almost  equally  true. 
The  mind,  acting  through  the  sympathetic  and  vaso- motor 
nerves,  affects  the  secretions  of  the  internal  organs,  es- 
pecially of  the  stomach  and  bowels,  it  acts  on  the  kidneys 
and  the  heart,  on  respiration  and  perspiration,  and  influ- 
ences the  amount  of  blood  flowing  through  the  arteries. 
Digestion  may  be  retarded  or  hastened  by  the  condition 
of  the  mind;  and  the  assimilation  of  food  and  the  elim- 
ination of  waste  products  may  be  disturbed,  to  the  ex- 
tent, that  if  a  state  of  unrest  or  unhappiness  obtains,  such 
as  may  be  occasioned  by  worry,  sorrow,  anger,  or  depres- 

389 


390  RELIGION  AND   MEDICINE 

sion,  from  whatever  cause,  a  loss  of  balance  between  the 
mind  and  the  body  follows,  even  though  the  body  is  sound. 
All  this  results  in  unnatural  and  unhealthy  conditions 
for  both.  In  a  word,  an  unhealthy  mind  reacts  deleteri- 
ously  upon  an  otherwise  healthy  body. 

It  has  been  the  practice  to  regard  the  body  as  the  part 
mainly  at  fault  hi  chronic  disorders,  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  classified  diseases,  and  treatment  for  relief  has 
been  instituted  usually  from  the  stand  points  of  the 
physical.  A  great  many  people  are  unhealthy  never- 
theless because  of  their  disturbed  attitude  mentally  to- 
ward life  and  living.  That  these  mental  states  have 
existed  right  along  no  one  questions,  but  that  they  have 
not  been  fully  appreciated,  and  treated  with  intelligence 
by  those  presumably  qualified  to  do  that  work,  is  also 
equally  true.  The  majority  of  all  ailments  are  doubtless 
due  to  physical  causes,  and  many  to  inheritance;  but 
there  have  been  an  ever-increasing  number  of  people 
whom  physical  measures  have  failed  to  relieve  or  have 
only  partially  restored.  The  physical  and  mental  bal- 
ance both  must  be  cultivated  and  maintained  if  life  is  to 
go  on  well,  and  end  happily.  The  head  as  well  as  the 
body  parts  must  be  considered,  in  cases  of  illness,  for  the 
chances  are  that  both  need  patching  up  and  not  one  end 
at  a  time.  The  physical  and  organic  ailments  of  the  body 
have  been  and  are  still  the  province  of  the  physician  and 
surgeon,  and  these  ailments  arise  from  physical  causes, 
we  will  assume,  for  the  greater  part.  Spiritual  and  ideal 
conditions  have  been  and  are  still  within  the  province  of 
the  clergy,  broadly  speaking.  But  we  have  a  mental- 
habit  field,  below  the  spiritual  and  above  the  physical,  — 


APPENDIX 


391 


an  open  field  for  both  clergy  and  physicians.  The  men- 
tal attitude  of  people  toward  life  and  living  is  quite  as 
susceptible  of  treatment,  and  is  quite  as  important  a  sub- 
ject, as  the  care  of  the  body.  How  to  deal  successfully 
with  this  mental-habit  field,  is  a  question  that  is  being 
threshed  out  industriously  at  the  present  time. 

Young  people  are  generally  healthy,  if  born  of  healthy 
stock;  and  youth  is  optimistic.  The  bodily  machine 
being  new,  it  stands  the  wear  and  tear  it  is  put  to,  as  well 
as  the  abuse;  and  we  hear  little  complaint  from  begin- 
ners who  have  but  recently  entered  the  world's  arena;  — 
at  least  for  a  term  of  years,  unless  circumstances  have 
been  such  that  the  young  life  has  had  to  shoulder  the 
burdens  of  older  years  from  the  start  and  has  been 
undone  mentally  and  physically  in  consequence. 

Although  this  statement  is  true  in  the  main,  we  some- 
times see  the  worry  habit  in  children,  developed  in  con- 
nection with  their  lessons  at  school,  or  other  tasks.  Every 
child  is  an  individual,  and  what  one  child  can  do  in  a 
given  time  should  not  be  made  the  measure  of  ability  for 
another  child.  Mental  aptitude  and  physical  endur- 
ance differ  as  much  hi  children  as  hi  grown  people.  A 
highly  organized  child  with  over-sensitive  nerve  centers 
will  soon  acquire  the  habit  of  worry,  if  urged  or  criticised 
in  regard  to  work.  A  child  should  be  led  to  do  as  well 
as  he  is  able  in  a  given  time,  but  he  should  never  be  nagged 
or  allowed  to  worry  because  he  works  with  less  aptitude 
than  another.  The  thing  to  measure  is  the  effort  on  a 
child's  part,  and  not  the  result  attained. 

Nervousness  is  essentially  a  mental  state.  But  all 
nervousness  has  a  cause  that  possibly  may  be  understood 


392  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

and  controlled.  The  temperament  of  children  can  be 
successfully  influenced  by  training  and  example.  A 
child  abnormally  sensitive,  who  is  regarded  as  excitable 
or  nervous,  can  be  brought  to  exercise  mental  control, 
but  it  takes  time  and  patience  to  do  it,  —  to  educate  any 
mind  into  control  of  abnormally  sensitive  nerve  cells,  — 
not  much  longer,  however,  than  it  does  to  perfect  any  other 
attitude  or  mental  attainment  that  is  worthy  of  cultiva- 
tion. The  temperament  of  a  nervous  child  becomes  ami- 
able and  lovable  if  the  child  is  handled  rightly;  and 
grown  to  manhood,  this  child  is  loved  quite  as  much  for 
his  temperament  as  for  his  intellectual  attainments.  In 
fact,  temperament  in  its  influence  upon  people,  as  an  ele- 
ment of  success,  is  worth  quite  as  much  as  a  merely  well- 
trained  brain.  More  than  one  man  in  active  life  has  come 
to  realize  that  it  is  his  defect  in  temperament  and  not  his 
lack  of  ability  or  education  that  costs  him  the  success  of 
his  life. 

A  child  should  be  made  especially  happy  at  meal-times, 
because  happy  nervous  impulses  influence  digestion  fa- 
vorably. This  is  accomplished  by  a  good  story,  if  it  starts 
a  laugh  which  ends  in  a  blush  or  a  nerve  thrill  that  tingles 
in  the  toes.  Laughter  sets  the  digestive  juices  flowing 
as  its  effect  upon  the  appetite  goes  to  show,  while  the 
parent's  look  that  blanches  a  child's  cheeks  stunts  both 
his  moral  and  physical  growth.  The  laugh  that  causes 
a  blush  of  pleasure  has  in  it  constructive  physical  and 
constructive  nervous  force.  The  growing  nerve  centers 
in  a  child  should  be  fed  on  emotions  that  tone  up  and  not 
upon  those  that  depress,  and  upon  influences  that  stim- 
ulate its  entire  being.  It  is  a  good  plan  to  begin  the  day 


APPENDIX  393 

with  a  laugh  started  at  the  breakfast  table.  Nutrition, 
as  well  as  tonic  nervous  impulses,  —  both  constructive 
forces,  —  are  carried  in  greater  volume  to  every  cell  in  the 
body  under  happy  or  stimulating  atmospheres,  and  the 
whole  system  rings  with  applause  as  a  result,  just  as  a 
theatre  is  heard  to  ring,  when  a  vast  audience,  raised  to 
the  point  of  enthusiasm  over  something  well  and  beauti- 
fully done,  clap  their  hands  in  approval. 

A  lad  twelve  years  of  age,  a  sensitive  boy,  because  of 
his  delicate  inherited  organization,  was  found  to  lie  awake 
after  he  was  put  to  bed.  No  cause  could  be  found  for 
this.  He  was  given  only  a  light  supper  and  was  sent  to 
bed  early,  as  all  growing  children  should  be.  His  mind 
evidently  worked  far  into  the  first  half  of  the  night.  One 
day  his  uncle,  a  physician,  said  to  him,  "When  the  sun 
goes  down  the  day  is  done,  and  the  night  is  yours  in  which 
to  sleep.  Don't  carry  to  bed  with  you  the  thought  of 
anything  you  may  not  have  said  or  done  well  during  the 
day.  You  are  to  get  up  every  morning  and  make  a  fresh 
start.  I  love  you  all  the  more  because  you  are  imperfect. 
If  you  were  perfect  in  the  beginning  you  would  have  noth- 
ing to  work  for  except  money,  and  that  does  not  always 
make  happiness,  and  it  is  happiness,  lad,  you  are  after, 
—  the  distinctive  qualities  and  mental  poise  that  make 
happiness  for  you  now,  and  especially  as  you  grow  older. 
Fire  your  sunset  gun  as  the  government  does,  when  the 
day  is  done,  and  haul  your  flag.  Next  morning  set  it 
again.  Go  to  bed  to  sleep."  Some  time  afterwards, 
this  boy  said  to  his  aunt,  in  an  appreciative  way:  "Tante 
May,  Tante  May,  since  uncle  said  the  day  was  over  when 
the  sun  set,  I  can  sleep  like  anything."  This  lad  had 


394  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

evidently  been  reviewing  the  result  of  each  day's  work, 
and  perhaps  worrying  over  some  part  of  what  he  had 
said  or  done  or  failed  to  do.  When  told  that  the  day 
ended  with  the  going  down  of  the  sun,  and  that  each  suc- 
ceeding day  he  was  to  begin  anew,  and  that  he  was  loved 
all  the  more  because  of  his  present  imperfections,  which 
he  would  some  day  conquer,  he  quietly  rested  his  head 
upon  the  pillow  and  fell  asleep. 

This  life  is  man's  school,  —  conditions,  his  tools.  In 
his  aim  after  perfectness  he  often  fails  from  shortness  of 
vision,  from  unripeness,  and  from  weakness,  which  can 
only  become  strength  by  the  exercise  of  just  such  faculties 
as  are  now  his  modes  of  expression.  If  those  who  "  miss 
the  mark,"  which  is  the  most  intelligent  understanding 
of  "sin"  (another  name  for  imperfection),  would  so  con- 
strue it,  and  count  instances  of  missing  the  mark  as  "tar- 
get practice"  which  will  result  finally  in  a  perfect  aim, 
all  that  demoralization  resultant  upon  an  accusing  con- 
science would  disappear. 

A  mother  having  four  children  wore  a  heavy  black  dress 
and  veil  because  of  the  loss  of  one  of  the  children.  She 
forgot  that  the  living  children  were  equally  dear  to  her. 
One  day  her  children  begged  her  to  wear  bright  colors, 
saying  her  "clothes  hurt  them,"  but  she  did  not  realize 
how  much  they  meant  by  whai  thev  said,  until  on  a  later 
day  one  of  them  took  a  pink  bow  from  a  doll's  dress,  a 
poor  faded  affair,  and  pinned  it  quietly  to  her  waist. 
Those  who  wear  black  because  of  the  loss  of  dear  ones 
forget  the  effect  the  black  may  have  on  others  living, 
who  are  equally  dear.  Grief  is  only  intensified  by  this 
custom,  and  the  attention  of  thousands  is  drawn  in  this 


APPENDIX  395 

way  to  a  person  whose  face  and  manner  can  but  act  de- 
pressingly  upon  all.  A  crape  veil  often  works  serious 
mischief  to  both  the  spirit  and  the  body.  People  have 
been  known  to  grow  faint  at  the  sight  of  the  thing.  "  Why 
should  we  wear  black  for  the  guests  of  God"?  The 
wearing  of  mourning  may  be  a  mark  of  respect  or  love 
for  those  who  have  departed,  but  it  serves  also  to  intensify 
grief,  and  draws  the  attention  of  others  to  our  sorrow,  to 
no  good  end;  while  it  may  cause  suffering  to  many.  It 
would  certainly  help  the  happiness  of  the  world  if  this 
fashion  of  wearing  black  could  be  put  aside.  If  it  is  worn 
for  self-protection,  as  some  assert,  a  more  hopeful  color 
might  be  selected  and  that  would  do  quite  as  well,  perhaps. 
The  change  that  a  funeral  represents  should  be  looked 
upon  as  the  end  of  a  beautiful  life,  and  the  beginning  of 
another  life  even  more  beautiful.  Since  every  one  has 
to  move  on,  wouldn't  it  be  better,  if  we  cannot  rejoice, 
because  of  personal  loss,  to  avoid  intensifying,  at  least,  a 
result  that  cannot  be  helped.  Children  are  very  suscep- 
tible to  external  impressions  or  influences.  It  is  pos- 
sible for  habits  of  introspection,  or  worry,  or  fault-finding 
even,  to  be  acquired  in  youth,  by  some  children  at  least, 
if  left  to  their  own  way  of  thinking,  or  because  of  what 
they  see  or  hear  their  elders  say  or  do.  If  the  mother's 
voice  is  low-pitched  the  child's  will  become  so.  If  the 
father  is  nervous  and  excitable  and  goes  storming  about 
the  house  because  of  disturbing  trifles,  his  children  are 
likely  to  become  something  more  than  disturbing  trifles 
in  time,  and  have  their  father  to  thank  for  it.  Children 
are  great  imitators,  as  some  of  us  know  to  our  sorrow 
or  amusement  as  the  case  may  be.  A  child  with  a  stick 


396  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

in  her  hand  stood  before  her  sawdust  doll.  She  was 
heard  to  say,  "If  you  don't  mind  you  will  get  a  damn-darn 
beating."  I  wonder  which  one  of  her  parents  this  child 
was  quoting  or  imitating. 

Some  of  the  causes  for  mental  unrest  and  wretched- 
ness among  maturer  minds  are  apparent  to  the  average 
observer.  Altogether  too  rapidly  people  are  losing  sight 
of  their  capacity  to  enjoy  little  things.  As  the  writer 
has  said,  "The  south  side  of  a  red  apple  gave  pleasure 
in  childhood,  now  it  takes  the  echoes  of  a  Krupp  gun  to 
create  an  impression,  such  is  the  spirit  of  unrest  and 
sensationalism."  As  children  we  play  with  toys,  —  the 
tin  horse,  the  tin  cart,  the  tin  soldier,  and  the  paper  tent. 
As  "grown-ups"  we  play  with  a  real  horse,  a  real  cart,  and 
live  in  a  real  house.  Pray  tell  us  why  this  change  in  the  size 
of  the  toys  should  make  so  many  of  us  miserable.  This 
world  was  given  us  to  work  in  and  play  in,  it  is  a  pretty 
place,  but  thousands  of  people  under  existing  conditions 
seem  to  make  a  nightmare  out  of  ordinary  life  and  living. 
People  find  fault  with  the  weather  and  make  themselves 
miserable  by  doing  so.  Of  what  use  is  such  fault-finding? 
Why  not  learn  to  like  a  rainy  day  ?  We  have  them.  The 
flower  by  the  roadside  blooms  a  thing  of  beauty;  per- 
haps it  has  just  as  hard  a  time  as  any  of  us  getting  along 
there  in  the  dust  and  dirt  where  the  soil  is  poor,  the  rocks 
are  bare,  and  moisture  scant.  The  poor  horse  gets  only 
his  board  for  his  toil,  and  yet  he  never  complains.  Too 
many  people  are  afraid  they  are  going  to  be  measured  by 
the  size  of  the  roof  they  are  under.  The  plane  of  life 
upon  which  people  find  themselves  should  be  dignified 
by  their  attitude  toward  it.  Imitation  instead  of  emula- 


APPENDIX  397 

tion  is  the  habit  of  too  many  people.  The  luxuries  of 
life  have  become  the  necessities  of  life.  False  pride  and 
vanity  are  too  often  in  evidence  while  real  pride  seldom 
shows  its  head.  With  six  days  in  the  week  devoted  to 
competition  and  a  little  more  than  an  hour  in  the  one  day 
that  is  left  devoted  to  spirituality,  delivered  at  arm's  length, 
usually,  is  it  any  wpnder  that  many  lose  sight  of  the  great 
purpose  for  which  life  is  worked  out  and  lived  through. 

Under  the  stress  of  modern  competition  one-half  of 
mankind  overpowers  the  other  half,  and  then  has  them  to 
take  care  of  as  invalids.  Women  compete  with  men 
under  the  laws  made  for  men,  although  women  are  rated 
but  half  as  strong,  physically,  as  men.  Laborers  will 
some  day  be  classified,  and  every  life  will  be  preserved 
for  whatever  there  is  in  it;  every  one,  no  matter  what 
his  limitations,  can  do  something  useful. 

When  men  worked  in  the  fields  and  women  in  the  homes 
there  was  mutual  dependence,  and  life  went  on  more 
simply  and  steadily  than  it  does  now.  The  frugal,  ab- 
stemious ways  of  living  that  obtained  hi  earlier  days 
were  certainly  more  natural  than  is  now  the  case,  and  the 
minds  of  the  people  were  generally  more  at  ease.  Wealth 
was  more  evenly  distributed  then.  With  potatoes  in 
the  cellar  and  corn  in  the  barn  there  was  no  such  vital 
question  as  to  where  the  next  meal  was  coming  from. 
A  day's  indisposition  was  not  necessarily  a  nightmare. 
People  are  crowding  into  the  cities,  where  there  is  rent  to 
pay  and  where  food  costs  money,  instead  of  the  labor 
necessary  to  plant  it  and  get  it  out  of  the  ground.  If 
more  beginners  had  the  experience  that  world  winnowing 
affords,  they  would  stay  on  the  land.  Wages  have  ad- 


398  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

vanced,  but  the  cost  of  living  has  advanced,  and  exist- 
ence, for  those  who  have  no  resources  except  what  their 
daily  toil  affords  them,  is  much  more  exacting  than  it  has 
ever  been  before.  The  man  who  happens  to  have  a 
business  mind,  or  has  been  trained  in  a  business  way, 
has  by  far  the  best  chance  at  the  "loaves  and  fishes"  as 
the  world  of  money  is  distributed  to-day. 

Aside  from  this  question  of  daily  necessity  among  the 
weak,  and  the  working  people  generally,  which  is  re- 
sponsible for  much  of  the  unhappiness  experienced,  a 
lack  of  mental  poise  exists,  quite  as  serious,  though  not  as 
frequently  met  with,  among  the  well-to-do  and  the  rich. 

It  is  not  stress  of  life  then,  or  actual  want,  that  causes 
all  the  mental  misery  seen  and  felt,  and  so  some  of  it  must 
be  accounted  for  on  other  grounds.  The  poor  man's 
wolf  is  an  ugly  customer,  but  we  see  poor  men  at  every 
turn  in  the  road  who  are  not  afraid  to  face  that  customer. 
Perhaps,  after  all,  lives  lived  through  have  much  in  com- 
mon, whether  they  be  lives  of  the  rich  or  of  the  poor. 
There  may  be  the  same  amount  of  character,  or  lack  of 
it,  to  contend  with,  the  same  weariness  attending  endless 
festivities,  that  might  be  expected  to  follow  years  of  toil, 
the  same  amount  of  care  or  sorrow,  and  finally  the  same 
amount  of  pain.  Who  knows?  Or  the  causes  may  lie 
deeper  still,  for  happiness  must  come  from  within.  We 
get  back  what  we  give  out.  Browning  says,  "Man  is 
not  yet;  he  is  becoming."  In  the  evolution  of  the  world, 
the  work  is  done  both  by  those  who  are  struggling  at 
the  bottom  of  all  creation,  and  by  those  who  fall  on  the 
firing-line,  —  who  are  pushed  on  from  behind.  Man  is 
on  the  up- trend  all  along  the  line  the  world  over. 


APPENDIX  399 

Much  of  the  old  orthodox  religions  no  longer  satisfies 
the  modern  mind  or  supplies  the  mental  needs  of  the 
present.  There  are  rare  preachers  whose  sermons  are 
messages  of  uplift;  whose  statements  are  hopeful  and 
helpful  spiritually  and  through  them  the  perplexing  and 
rough  places  in  daily  life  are  smoothed  and  blessed. 
Scaring  a  man  to  death,  as  the  ministers  used  to  do  forty 
years  ago,  doesn't  work  to-day.  The  writer  distinctly  re- 
members the  effect  Thursday  evening  prayer-meeting  had 
on  him.  It  resulted  in  a  hole,  big  enough  to  get  into, 
back  of  his  father's  barn.  When  the  Angel  Gabriel  blew 
that  trumpet  of  "hisen,"  he  and  his  brother  knew  where 
they  could  be  found. 

The  depression  concerning  "sin,"  depression  amount- 
ing often  to  anguish,  calls  for  treatment;  either  through 
enlightened  views  concerning  the  moral  government  of 
God,  or  through  psycho-therapeutical  treatment,  that  will 
displace  the  hobgoblins  of  a  crude  theology,  —  a  theol- 
ogy which  forgot  to  include  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and 
His  absolutely  benevolent  plan  concerning  the  rise  (not 
fall)  of  man.  The  church  conducted  as  an  ethical  cul- 
ture society  cannot  altogether  fulfil  its  mission.  The 
church  must  be  brought  to  the  people  through  the  power 
which  it  demonstrates,  and  this  will  also  bring  the  people 
to  the  church. 

Certain  mental  habits  are  among  the  mental  causes 
for  physical  disturbance,  in  maturer  minds  especially. 
Worry  stands  first,  and  then  follow,  fear,  anger,  over- 
sensitiveness,  introspection,  retrospection,  looking  forward 
(fear  of  the  future),  irritability,  pessimism,  depression, 
melancholia,  hysteria,  epilepsy,  and  many  others  depending 


400  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

upon  the  individual,  and  the  circumstances  that  promote 
these  disorders.  These  harpies  of  the  mind  play  havoc 
with  the  mental  machine,  they  interfere  with  rational 
thinking,  and  in  extreme  cases  have  been  known  to  jar  and 
fret  the  brain  cells  until  they  become  worn  out  with  their 
own  friction.  This  is  what  is  meant  by  the  expression 
"Worried  to  death."  Nerve  cells  are  over-sensitive  or 
stable  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  their  nucleus  or  center. 
The  excitability  or  inhibition  of  a  nerve  depends  upon 
the  power  it  has  of  responding  to  a  stimulus  or  withstand- 
ing a  shock.  This  varies  with  the  individual.  Two  boys 
are  born  of  the  same  father  and  mother.  They  go  through 
a  railroad  accident;  one  comes  out  whole,  the  other  comes 
out  nervously  unstable,  because  of  mental  shock.  His 
nerve  centers,  the  storehouses  of  energy,  spill  their  force 
on  the  slightest  provocation,  instead  of  discharging  it 
only  as  needed  and  in  the  amount  required,  as  when  one 
moves  an  arm.  Both  boys  saw  the  same  sights,  and 
neither  one  was  physically  hurt.  Both  have  the  same 
"ingrediences"  in  their  make-up;  they  are  two-thirds 
of  what  has  been  and  are  one-third  of  what  is,  but  no  one 
can  tell  just  how  the  "cake"  is  coming  out  in  the  baking. 
The  vaso- motor  spasm  due  to  "shock"  produced  but 
little  change  in  one  of  them,  while  for  the  other,  the  un- 
stable condition  resulting,  is  prolonged,  and  if  not 
strengthened  by  mental-moral  training,  may  prove  con- 
stant. Physical  courage,  or  a  stable  nervous  system,  is 
a  great  invigorator,  while  timidity  tends  to  destroy  the 
energy  of  the  nervous  sytem.  Shocks  may  be  either 
mental  or  physical.  Both  mental  and  physical  shock 
produce  the  same  results  which  differ  only  in  degree  and 


APPENDIX  401 

duration.  A  blow  on  the  head  produces  a  vaso-motor 
spasm,  or  a  contraction  of  the  nerves  that  regulate  the 
flow  of  blood  through  the  arteries.  This  is  how  the  physi- 
ologists explain  shock.  If  the  blow  is  severe  enough,  we 
get  concussion  of  the  brain  or  even  contusion  of  the  brain, 
and  unconsciousness.  Mental  shocks  produce  vaso- 
motor  spasm  in  the  same  way,  the  degree  and  duration 
depending  upon  the  cause.  Fear  and  worry  acting 
through  the  vaso-motor  nerves  affect  the  caliber  of  the 
blood-vessels.  Under  fear,  the  person  afflicted  turns 
pale,  as  those  nerves  contract,  and  if  the  depressing  influ- 
ence persists,  as  for  example  a  sense  of  guilt,  the  irritated 
nerves  continue  to  hold  their  grip.  And  that  grip  may 
never  let  go  until  the  shock  that  produced  it  is  released. 
Under  the"  stimulation  of  hope  and  expectation  or  praise, 
the  vaso-motor  nerves  relax,  the  color  returns,  and  the 
blood  and  lymph  flow  freely.  The  same  result  follows 
play,  laughter,  music,  or  the  sight  of  color  such  as  the 
sunset  affords,  when  the  sun,  with  a  blush  of  pleasure, 
bids  us  "good  night,"  because  of  what  he  has  seen  the 
good  people  of  the  world  accomplish,  while  the  earth  is 
turning  around  once.  Worry  and  fear,  acting  through  the 
sympathetic  nervous  system,  affect  the  secretions  of 
the  mouth,  stomach,  liver,  pancreas,  and  intestines.  So 
the  digestive  secretions  are  diminished,  the  appetite  fails, 
and  the  stomach  nerves,  because  of  the  indigestion  in- 
duced, become  irritated.  A  sore  feeling  stomach  results 
with  nausea,  or  vomiting  even  may  cap  the  climax.  The 
appetite  will  frequently  improve  if  meals  are  eaten  under 
congenial  conditions,  when  every  one  is  having  a  good 
time.  Worry  and  fear  are  banished  for  that  hour  because 


402  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

of  our  enjoyment  and  the  sight  of  generous  hospitality. 
Bilious  attacks,  which  evidence  irritation  of  the  stomach 
mucosa,  may  follow  mental  disturbances,  or  it  may  be 
that  the  secretion  of  bile  becomes  affected.  Constipation, 
either  spastic,  —  due  to  spasm  of  the  intestines,  —  or  due 
to  diminished  intestinal  secretion,  is  often  a  concomitant 
of  mental  disorder.  A  faulty  assimilation  of  food  and  a 
deficient  elimination  of  waste  products  are  factors  in  ill 
health.  Chronic  rheumatism,  a  result  of  these  two  dis- 
turbances in  part,  at  least,  is  nothing  more  or  less  than 
an  exhibition  of  waste  material  floating  in  the  blood  cur- 
rent; something  that  dieting  and  a  decent  frame  of  mind 
will  cure.  By  dieting  I  do  not  mean  starvation,  but 
thorough  munching  and  the  adaptation  of  food  to  fit  the 
physical  condition  and  occupation  of  the  patient.  If  the 
normal  capillaries  (smallest  blood-vessels  above  one-fiftieth 
of  an  inch  in  diameter  under  normal  mental  and  physical 
conditions)  cannot  pass  along  morbid  material  floating 
in  the  blood  current,  they  certainly  cannot  do  so  when 
the  vaso-motor  nerves,  under  negative  mental  influences, 
contract  the  blood-vessels.  Things  get  into  our  bodies 
in  but  two  ways,  either  through  our  minds  or  our  mouths. 
There  are  but  five  ways  by  which  they  get  out,  —  by  the 
bowels,  kidneys,  breath,  sweat,  or  through  mental  pro- 
cesses that  liberate.  The  pessimist  is  generally  sallow- 
skinned  and  constipated.  He  is  under  constant  negative 
mental  influences,  because  he  allows  himself  to  imagine 
that  nothing  in  this  world  is  quite  as  it  should  be.  He 
probably  thinks  everything  is  going  to  the  devil,  but  hap- 
pily for  the  rest  of  us  there  are  some  who  doubt  this. 


APPENDIX  403 

"The  difference  betwixt  the  optimist 
And  pessimist  is  droll, 
The  optimist  sees  the  doughnut 
The  pessimist  the  hole." 

Cold,  damp  hands  and  feet  are  often  due  to  mental 
depression,  which  causes  a  relaxation  of  the  vaso-motor 
nerves.  Anger  frequently  brings  on  headaches.  Anger 
floods  the  brain  with  blood,  and  if  the  arteries  are  brittle, 
as  they  often  are  in  old  age,  —  for  a  man  is  just  as  old  as 
his  arteries  are  old,  —  the  rise  in  the  arterial  tension  may 
result  in  rupture  of  the  vessel,  when  apoplexy  follows,  due 
to  hemorrhage.  Attacks  of  anger  hasten  the  deteriora- 
tion of  the  arteries.  Anger  brings  on  attacks  of  hysteria 
and  epilepsy.  In  this  way  anger,  discharging  the  pent-up 
nervous  force,  has  been  known  to  cause  death.  Out- 
breaks of  anger  are  comparable  to  a  severe  thunderstorm, 
with  destructive,  blinding  flashes  of  lightning.  The  shock 
resulting  from  an  attack  of  anger  may  last  two  or  three 
weeks. 

There  is  a  cyclical  recurrence  in  many  forms  of  mental 
disturbance,  showing  that  the  nervous  system  is  periodi- 
cally aroused  by  some  unseen  cause.  The  exciting  cause 
of  a  nerve  storm  may  be  either  physical  or  mental.  The 
"blues,"  so-called,  are  the  outcome  of  periodical  poison- 
ing, due  to  indigestion  probably,  and  the  indigestion  may 
have  sprung  from  over-excitement,  or  other  morbid  men- 
tal condition,  such,  for  instance,  as  worrying  over  fancied 
sins.  Epilepsy  in  some  cases  can  be  controlled  by  men- 
tal training,  especially  when  mental  disturbances  precede 
the  attacks.  Hysteria  is  essentially  a  mental  state,  and 
in  its  effect  upon  the  body,  acting  through  the  sympathetic 


404  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

nervous  system,  has  been  known  to  produce  a  condition 
closely  simulating  tuberculosis.  A  woman,  a  teacher  by 
profession,  had  been  vomiting  almost  daily  for  a  year. 
She  had  lost  twenty  pounds  in  weight,  and  she  coughed 
throughout  much  of  each  night.  She  had  a  daily  rise  in 
temperature,  but  no  increase  in  the  pulse  rate.  She  re- 
signed her  position  and  returned  home  to  enter  a  hospital. 
The  vomiting  had  begun  when  she  was  given  an  order 
by  her  superior  officer  with  which  she  did  not  wish  to 
comply.  The  case  was  diagnosticated  as  one  of  chronic 
hysteria.  Hysterical  persons  see  the  world  through 
irrational  lenses  —  their  point  of  view  is  wrong.  The 
best  and  most  effectual  treatment  is  by  direct  suggestion. 
After  receiving  some  wholesome  advice,  that  was  neither 
coddling  nor  criticising,  this  woman  regained  her  health 
and  strength,  and  has  worked  regularly. 

During  the  recent  financial  crisis  a  prominent  financier 
lost  twenty  pounds  in  weight,  although  eating  regularly 
but  with  perhaps  less  zest  than  formerly.  He  was  exam- 
ined by  his  physician  and  pronounced  physically  sound. 
The  week  following  this  examination  he  gained  three 
pounds  in  weight  and  has  since  improved  rapidly.  His 
was  an  instance  of  loss  of  weight  due  to  depression,  re- 
sulting from  anxiety  connected  with  money  matters.  The 
depression  was  maintained  by  solicitude  because  of  his 
rapid  loss  in  weight  without  assignable  physical  cause. 
When  told  by  his  physician  that  he  was  sound,  his  depres- 
sion was  relieved,  and  his  digestion  improved.  The  vaso- 
motor  spasm,  due  to  mental  shock,  no  longer  checked  the 
flow  of  his  gastric  secretions,  or  blood  current.  His  case 
illustrates  the  effect  of  negative  auto-suggestion,  followed 


APPENDIX  405 

by  the  beneficial  effect  of  a  direct  statement,  optimistic 
in  character.  But  auto-suggestion  works  affirmatively 
as  well  as  negatively.  A  well-known  American  general, 
whose  arm  had  been  shot  away  below  the  shoulder  years 
ago,  appealed  to  his  physician  for  relief  from  nervous  irri- 
tation and  discomfort  in  the  stump  of  the  amputated  limb. 
It  had  become  irritated  by  the  jostling  of  people  at  recep- 
tions. The  general  was  known  to  believe  in  God.  He 
was  told  that  whenever  any  one  hit  his  arm,  he  was  to  say 
to  himself,  and  mean  it  in  good  faith,  —  "God  bless  you." 
His  adviser  was  convinced  that  the  stimulating  effect  of 
praise  passing  over  the  nerves  to  the  point  of  irritation 
would  have  a  soothing,  healing  influence  upon  the  nerve 
tissues.  The  general  was  told  to  direct  his  thoughts 
toward  the  injured  member  whenever  he  made  his  affir- 
mation. He  did  so,  and  in  less  than  four  months'  time  he 
is  reported  to  have  said  he  wished  some  one  would  knock 
against  that  arm,  he  wanted  to  bless  him. 

A  woman  afflicted  with  constipation  consulted  her 
physician.  She  was  one  of  the  over-sensitive  kind.  Her 
father  desired  her  to  attend  church  with  him  but  she  did 
not  enjoy  doing  so.  Every  Sunday  morning  the  church 
question  was  an  issue.  She  always  became  nauseated  at 
these  times.  Later,  when  advised  by  her  physician  to 
attend  the  church  of  her  choice,  and  to  keep  out  of  the 
room  where  her  father  was  accustomed  to  sit,  whenever 
the  "injured  innocence"  atmosphere  he  created  there  by 
his  mental  attitude  depressed  her,  she  promptly  recov- 
ered from  her  constipation.  This  was  a  case  of  spastic 
constipation  ( ?)  brought  on  by  the  young  woman's  mental 
state  under  certain  circumstances.  While  still  afflicted 


4c6  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

she  had  been  treated  for  a  year  by  a  physician  who  did 
not  understand  the  cause  of  her  trouble.  His  failure  was 
not  to  his  discredit,  for  she  made  no  statement  to  him  in 
regard  to  her  home  life.  Another  young  woman,  a  doc- 
tor's daughter  in  good  health,  and  physically  well  except 
for  constipation,  was  referred  to  a  specialist  in  stomach 
and  intestinal  disorders.  He  treated  her  without  success. 
She  did  not  tell  him  that  she  had  lost  her  lover.  Finally 
she  espoused  the  idea  of  harmony  as  taught  by  the  church, 
when  promptly  she  recovered  from  her  constipation. 
Mental  disturbance  had  been  the  cause  of  it.  We  must 
not  infer  from  these  citations  that  constipation  can  be 
cured  ordinarily  by  mental  treatment  alone,  but  it  is  fair 
to  conclude  that  the  mind  as  well  as  the  body  must  be 
considered  when  one  is  dealing  with  chronic  disorders. 
Incompatibility  of  persons  is  nothing  but  inharmony.  A 
person  who  has  mental  poise  can  soon  strike  the  note 
that  harmonizes  with  the  note  of  another  person,  and  it 
does  not  matter  whether  or  not  the  effort  is  a  conscious 
one  on  the  part  of  both.  When  both  parties  are  aware  of 
a  difference  between  them,  and  are  willing  to  make  the 
effort  to  get  in  tune,  they  can  quickly  succeed.  A  party 
of  five  traveling  together  were  found  to  have  inharmoni- 
ous relations.  It  was  agreed  they  should  not  speak  of 
anything  that  disturbed  them  at  the  time  it  happened,  but 
wait  for  twenty-four  hours.  At  first  they  all  covered 
sheets  of  paper  filing  exceptions  and  making  notes.  In- 
side of  five  days  they  were  all  laughing  at  each  other,  the 
exceptions  were  never  argued,  and  from  that  time  on  they 
got  along  famously. 
Worry  belongs  to  the  mental-habit  field.  It  is  neither 


APPENDIX  407 

a  physical  condition  to  be  treated  with  drugs,  nor  one 
to  be  relieved  by  spiritual  teachings,  unless  the  person 
afflicted  can  overcome  the  habit  by  faith  and  prayer. 
Worry  is  a  form  of  nervousness,  and  nervousness  is  a 
mental  state.  A  person  may  have  attained  the  spiritual 
level  and  yet  be  a  worrier  to  the  extent  that  renders  life 
miserable,  not  alone  for  the  person  afflicted  but  for  all 
intimately  associated  with  him. 

A  railroad  conductor  consulted  a  physician.  He  had 
been  discharged  from  the  railroad  on  account  of  nervous- 
ness. On  the  physician's  examination  he  was  found  to 
be  physically  sound.  When  asked  what  he  was  "fussing" 
over,  he  replied,  —  "I  suppose  I  have  been  worrying  for 
fear  some  one  getting  on  or  off  my  train  would  get  hurt." 
When  asked  if  any  one  ever  had  been  injured  in  this  way, 
in  connection  with  any  train  he  had  charge  of,  he  replied 
in  the  negative.  He  was  told  that  his  nervousness  was 
due  to  worry,  that  worry  was  a  mental  condition  and  not 
a  physical  state,  and  that  there  were  no  drugs  for  nervous- 
ness of  this  kind.  He  was  told  he  must  learn  to  dismiss 
worry  from  his  mind,  as  he  would  stop  any  other  habit, 
mental  or  physical,  that  detracted  from  his  usefulness  or 
happiness.  He  was  given  one  hundred  yellow-eyed  beans, 
and  was  told  to  put  one,  every  morning,  in  a  little  box  in 
the  corner  of  his  bed-room,  and  then  say,  "Worry  is  in 
the  bean  and  the  bean  is  in  the  box."  He  was  not  to 
forget  where  he  left  the  worry,  in  the  bean,  any  more  than 
he  would  be  expected  to  forget  where  he  left  his  hat.  He 
was  to  walk  away  with  the  feeling  that  the  worry  was  not 
in  his  head,  but  out  of  it.  Before  the  hundred  beans  were 
exhausted  he  was  free  from  his  nervousness  or  worry  and 


408  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

had  been  restored  to  his  place  on  the  road.  Another  good 
way  to  eliminate  these  habits  from  the  mind  is  to  have  a 
regular  place  where  they  can  be  left.  An  old  chair 
bottom  in  the  corner  of  the  room  will  serve  the  purpose. 
The  person  afflicted  is  to  go  to  that  place  and  deliber- 
ately deposit  his  worries  there  as  he  would  boxes  or 
bundles.  This  practice  persisted  in  becomes  a  useful 
resource.  The  funny  side  to  the  procedure  helps  solve 
the  trouble. 

It  may  not  be  necessary  to  cultivate  a  substitute-habit 
in  the  strong  man,  for  dismissal  will  suffice.  In  others, 
it  is  only  by  patient  practice  that  the  mind  can  be  freed 
from  worry;  and  the  attempt  must  be  kept  up  until  the 
brain  recognizes  and  yields  to  the  newer  impulse.  One 
does  not  learn  to  play  the  piano  by  sitting  down  before  it 
once.  We  go  down,  to  be  sure,  before  new  shocks,  and 
for  a  limited  time  we  are  more  or  less  influenced  by  them, 
but  if  our  powers  of  resistance  have  been  strengthened 
by  training,  we  promptly  rally,  when  the  better  impulses 
and  better  feelings  hold  sway.  It  is  possible  to  train 
the  mind  to  a  point  at  which  one's  inside  nature  simply 
refuses  to  get  "on  edge,"  or  if  it  does,  like  a  stove  cover 
it  can  be  turned  down,  no  matter  what  the  provocation. 
The  mind  can  be  discharged  from  the  consideration  of 
any  vexatious  subject,  and  the  attention  given  to  the 
enjoyment  of  any  other.  Mind  cure  is  simply  the  ac- 
quiring of  control  over  impulses,  emotions,  or  habits  that 
demoralize.  It  substitutes  other  habits,  if  necessary. 
The  person  gains  mental  poise,  and  leans  towards  opti- 
mism. The  mind  liberates  the  nervous  mechanism  and 
vital  fluids  of  the  body  so  that  all  the  functions,  both  phys- 


APPENDIX 


409 


ical  and  mental,  are  performed  normally.  Whether  the 
condition  recognized  as  a  chronic  disorder  or  disease  is 
due  to  mental  or  physical  causes,  one  cannot  always  easily 
determine.  If  the  person  suffering  is  willing  to  cultivate 
one  or  two  new  habits  for  the  old  ones  he  suspects,  although 
he  may  not  be  able  to  see  that  they  are  the  cause  of  his 
trouble,  he  will  often  be  surprised  at  the  outcome.  He 
may  find  that  this  is  all  that  is  required  to  cure  him  of 
the  chronic  ailment  from  which  he  has  been  seeking  re- 
lief by  the  usual  methods,  in  vain.  It  is  useless  to  ex- 
pect permanent  results  from  one  habit  taken  up  with, 
if  the  old  bad  habit  is  still  indulged.  The  first  essential 
of  cure  in  cases  of  bad  mental  habits  is  a  willing  mind. 

The  best  time  for  training  the  mind  to  control  itself  is 
in  childhood,  but  few  of  the  middle-aged  people  of  to-day 
were  fortunate  enough  to  have  had  mental  discipline  of 
this  sort;  most  of  us  were  not  trained  at  all,  but  were  left 
to  battle  with  our  habits,  or  with  the  "old  adversary"  as 
Deacon  White  used  to  say.  He  is  reported  to  have  taken 
a  fall  out  of  this  old  wrestler  more  than  once  when  out  in 
the  pasture  with  his  oxen,  hauling  wood.  Confronting 
a  bad  habit  often  intensifies  it.  It  is  better  perhaps  to 
turn  away  and  leave  the  adversary  behind,  hi  spite  of 
Deacon  White's  experience.  A  good  way  to  banish  habits 
that  detract  from  happiness  is  to  discuss  with  our  neigh- 
bors and  friends  the  questions  of  conquering  them,  and 
the  best  way  to  do  it.  By  such  discussion  one  strengthens 
his  own  powers  of  resistance  and  at  the  same  time  helps 
his  friend.  Even  if  one  does  not  believe  hi  all  his  friend 
may  say,  or  in  all  one  hears,  it  pays  to  preach  and  listen, 
if  the  preaching  points  to  something  better  than  the  thing 


410  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

one  is  doing.  They  who  keep  themselves  occupied  with 
wholesome  mental  and  physical  activities  keep  their 
spirits  steady,  —  only  empty  vessels  rattle. 

Many  people  live  to  mature  life  without  any  earnest 
spiritual  effort,  or  any  expectation  of  developing  the  spirit. 
They  lay  claim  to  belief  in  eternal  life,  and  look  for  the 
gradual  development  of  the  divine  spark  in  themselves, 
but  they  so  crowd  their  daily  lives  with  superficialities 
that  they  have  little  time  or  room  for  the  consideration  of 
spiritual  truths.  They  depend  entirely  for  happiness 
upon  what  they  can  get  out  of  material  things,  and  upon 
the  purchasing  power  of-  money.  The  man  who  makes 
material  things  the  end  of  life,  instead  of  a  means  to  an 
end,  makes  a  miss  of  it. 

Every  man  is  the  gardener  of  his  own  life.  In  the  first 
years  youth  untrained  rushes  on  and  on,  leaving  half  his 
fields  untilled.  These  waste  fields  grow  up  to  weeds,  — 
worry,  fear,  anger,  over-sensitiveness,  hysteria,  introspec- 
tion, depression.  Later,  if  he  is  wise,  he  turns  back  and 
ploughs  and  plants  again,  that  all  life's  garden  may  be  seen 
a  thing  of  beauty,  —  a  completed  garden  in  full  bloom 
when  life  draws  near  to  its  close.  Appreciation,  respon- 
siveness, good  temper,  mental  poise,  optimism,  frugality, 
dignity,  faith,  —  these  are  the  virtues  he  forgot  in  the 
first  planting  of  the  garden.  When  our  fields  have  been 
reclaimed,  the  men  and  women  who  come  to  us  or  care 
for  us,  those  who  pass  through  our  garden,  can  always 
gather  a  buttonhole  bouquet,  at  least,  and  the  memory  of 
the  meeting  and  the  passing  will  always  remain  delight- 
ful, as  the  memory  of  some  beautiful  landscape,  viewed 
in  the  fall  of  the  year  when  the  trees  are  full  of  color. 


APPENDIX  411 

As  we  grow  older,  it  becomes  us  to  grow  graceful  in 
spirit,  and  this  can  be  done  by  bringing  our  minds  to  the 
point  at  which  the  inner  self  must  not  become  irritated. 
One  who  learns  the  art  of  self-control,  or  mental  poise, 
remains  calm  and  lovable  under  all  conditions.  His  pres- 
ence and  his  influence  are  desired  by  all  during  his  declin- 
ing years.  To  grow  old  with  a  distressed  spirit  that 
creates  an  atmosphere  of  unrest  hi  one's  life,  which  is  in 
turn  imparted  to  those  about  us,  is  to  make  a  failure  of 
the.  last  years  of  life. 

J.  WARREN  ACHORN,  M.D. 


APPENDIX  II 

AN  ARTIST'S  EXPERIMENTS  IN  AUTO-SUGGESTION 

"My  work,  as  you  know,  brings  me  constantly  before 
the  public,  and  consequently  my  most  essential  need 
is  self-possession  and  self-confidence.  These  qualities 
I  lacked  to  such  a  degree  that  I  was  never  able  to  do  my- 
self justice.  A  few  days  after  I  began  the  study  of  sug- 
gestion I  had  an  important  duty  to  perform.  About 
two  hours  before  going  on  to  the  platform  I  made  some 
suggestions  to  myself  according  to  your  instructions, 
such  as  that  I  should  feel  no  fear  or  nervousness,  and 
that  I  should  be  able  to  throw  myself  into  my  work,  etc. 
I  then  dismissed  the  matter  from  my  mind.  The  result 
was  truly  remarkable.  When  the  time  came  I  had  a 
sense  of  ease  and  power  and  self-possession  such  as  I 
had  never  experienced  before,  either  in  public  or  private, 
and  I  held  my  audience  from  the  beginning  to  the  end. 
Not  only  that,  but  it  was  a  perfect  joy  to  me  to  be  able 
to  do  it.  I  have  had  several  successes  since  that  time, 
and  can  now  take  an  entirely  different  attitude  toward 
my  art  and  my  public  work.  Instead  of  the  helpless 
nervousness  which  used  to  possess  me,  I  have  a  feeling 
of  confidence  and  power,  so  marked  that  those  who 
know  me  have  commented  upon  the  change  without 
knowing  the  reason.  I  have  gone  steadily  on,  and  I  not 
only  hope,  but  I  know  that  it  is  within  my  power  to  reach 

412 


APPENDIX  413 

the  full  expression  of  my  talent  —  a  thing  which  seemed 
utterly  impossible  before.  I  have  used  auto-suggestion 
in  many  other  ways  and  with  surprising  success.  I  find 
that  it  is  quite  possible  to  put  out  of  my  mind  little  annoy- 
ing vexatious  things,  which  are  not  worth  a  thought,  but 
which  destroy  peace  of  mind  as  effectually  as  large 
troubles.  I  can  banish  the  'blues'  as  with  a  magic 
wand.  On  one  occasion  I  had  a  piece  of  business  to 
transact,  requiring  the  utmost  tact  and  delicacy.  It  was 
a  matter  of  vital  importance  to  me.  On  going  to  sleep 
the  night  before  and  on  awakening  in  the  morning  I 
suggested  to  myself  that  when  the  time  came  I  should 
know  how  to  say  the  right  thing  in  the  right  way.  When 
the  eventful  hour  came  my  mind  was  clear  and  alert, 
and  I  seemed  to  have  a  deeper  insight  into  the  matter. 
I  said  just  what  came  into  my  mind  to  say,  and  I  could 
scarcely  believe  the  evidence  of  my  senses  when  the  thing 
so  much  desired  was  accomplished.  I  could  give  other 
instances,  but  do  not  wish  to  weary  you.  It  has  made 
life  over  for  me.  It  seems  truly  as  if  the  crooked  things 
are  made  straight  and  the  rough  places  plain." 

A  CLERGYMAN  ON  AUTO-SUGGESTION 

'In  writing  this  letter,  I  hope,  in  as  simple  a  way  as 
possible,  to  give  several  reasons  why  I  believe  in  auto- 
suggestion. These  reasons  will  take  the  form  of  illus- 
trations of  the  good  which  has  been  accomplished  in  my 
own  case.  I  am  a  minister.  For  some  time  I  have  been 
engaged  in  literary  work.  Before  and  during  that  time 
I  had  been  troubled  with  nervousness,  sleeplessness,  im- 
aginary worries,  dismal  forebodings.  I  heard  of  the 


414  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

work  being  done  in  Emmanuel  Church,  a  work  which 
was  and  is  designed  precisely  for  such  a  case  as  mine. 
Yet  I  did  not  put  much  faith  in  it  at  first.  It  seemed 
too  simple.  I  examined  further.  I  found  that  it  was 
simple,  but  also  that  there  are  profound  pyschological 
laws  which  may  be  put  into  operation  for  the  healing  of 
mind  and  of  body.  The  method  alone  is  simple.  I  came 
to  discover  reservoirs  of  stored-up  forces  lying  in  the 
depths  of  the  subconscious  self  of  which  I  had  never 
dreamt.  I  determined  to  give  the  new  "cure"  a  trial. 
My  first  weakness  was  a  great  tendency  to  worry,  to  an- 
ticipate troubles  that  never  came  to  pass.  All  this,  of 
course,  reacted  upon  the  nervous  system.  My  nerves 
became  demoralized.  I  determined  to  check  these 
miseries.  In  the  morning  and  evening  I  "suggested"  to 
myself  not  negative  but  positive  qualities,  e.g.,  courage, 
self-confidence,  cheerfulness.  At  first,  it  all  seemed  a 
delusion  and  a  snare;  but  in  two  weeks  or  so  things 
looked  brighter,  the  world  took  on  a  more  roseate  hue 
and  life  appeared  a  different  and  better  thing  altogether. 
To  day,  while  not  wholly  delivered  from  the  bondage,  I 
am  on  the  way  to  complete  and  permanent  conquest.  I 
may  add  such  a  thing  looked  impossible  three  months 
ago.  Again,  to  any  one  who  knows  what  insomnia  is,  it 
is  scarcely  necessary  for  me  to  speak.  In  the  morning 
I  arose  unrested,  at  night  I  went  to  bed  tired  and  sleep- 
less. Again  I  "suggested"  sleep,  a  good  night's  sleep. 
At  first  it  failed.  The  fault  was  mine.  I  did  not  treat 
the  method  seriously  enough.  Again  I  tried  more  sug- 
gestion, say  fifteen  minutes.  That  night,  the  third  or 
fourth,  I  slept  the  sleep  of  the  just  for  five  hours.  I  kept 


APPENDIX  415 

the  "suggestion"  up  until  to-day  I  sleep  from  six  to  six 
hours  and  a  half. 

Finally,  nervousness  in  the  pulpit  troubled  me  a  great 
deal.  I  wanted  to  get  rid  of  it.  Well,  on  the  Wednesday 
or  Thursday  previous  to  the  Sunday  on  which  I  was  to 
preach  I  began  to  "suggest"  to  myself  "self-confidence," 
"courage,"  "faith."  If  I  had  these  I  knew  I  had  won 
half  the  battle.  That  first  Sunday  it  worked  like  magic. 
I  felt  like  a  new  man.  I  was  a  new  man.  I  had  more 
power,  more  energy,  consequent  upon  more  courage  and 
self-confidence.  I  was  more  at  my  ease,  which  meant 
that  the  people  were  more  at  theirs.  A  message  I  tried 
to  give  was  no  longer  so  formless,  not  quite  so  dead. 

This  letter,  I  fear,  is  becoming  long.  Yet  I  cannot 
close  without  saying  that  in  other  directions  I  have  been 
wonderfully  helped.  Ministers,  like  other  persons,  have 
a  temper.  I  think  I  was  especially  human  in  that  re- 
spect. That,  at  least,  is  a  frank  confession.  Perhaps  I 
can  afford  now  to  be  frank  when  I  say  that  the  "old 
man"  is  being  put  off  continually  and  the  "new  man" 
of  deeper  faith,  of  more  buoyant  hope,  of  larger  sym- 
pathies, is  being  put  on  day  by  day. 

I  find  auto-suggestion  is  also  good  in  my  studies.  If 
I  wish  for  more  concentration  in  my  thinking,  more  ease 
in  grasping  ideas,  more  fluency  in  writing,  with  the  will 
comes  the  strength  or  capacity  for  execution.  At  first, 
the  results  may  seem,  like  the  blind  man,  who,  when  his 
sight  was  restored,  saw  men  as  trees  walking.  Things 
are  blurred  —  distorted  —  then  they  become  clearer, 
until,  at  last,  they  stand  out  in  distinctest  outline.  At 
the  beginning  we  do  not  seem  to  get  results.  The  bad 


416  RELIGION  AND  MEDICINE 

temper,  or  worry,  or  nervousness  seem  to  be  still  master. 
It  may  be  so:  but  another  trial,  and  still  another,  and 
the  first  victory  is  won. 

After  that  it  becomes  easier.  At  the  moment  of  worry 
or  nervousness  it  seems  as  if  the  suggestions  I  made 
during  the  day  came  back  to  me  like  an  old  friend  to 
remind  me  of  my  good  resolutions,  and  I  am  certain  they 
will,  after  a  time,  become  a  second  nature.' 


INDEX   OF  AUTHORS 


PAGE 


PAGE 


Abgarus 

Achorn,  Dr.  J.  W 163, 

Alexander  the  Great 

Ambrose,  Archbishop   

Aristotle 

Arnold,  Matthew 

Assisi,St.  Francis  of.  .95,  299, 

367, 

Athanasius 

Augustine,  St 316,   367, 

Bacon 

Balzac    25,  29, 

Barker,  Dr.  L.  F 5, 

Beard,  G.  M 133,  170 

177. 

Bechterew,  W 

Bengel,  J.  A 

Bernheim,  H 40,  41,  71, 

78, 

Bleuler,  E 

Boehme 

Booth,  Charles 

Bousset    

Brahman  

Braid,  J 71, 

Bramwell,  J.  Milne    33, 

34,  40,  70,  71,  75,  76,  78 

87,   89,    222, 

Bridgman,  Laura    

Biichner,  P 

Bunyan   

Bushnell,  Horace   


362       Cadmus,  J 264 

41 1       Calkins,  Miss  83 

383       Catherine  of  Siena    95 

316      Celsus  10,  296 

269       Charcot 41,  70,  77,  91, 

350  113,  222,  229,  356,  360 

Claparede,  E 198 

385       Coleridge,  M.  E 270 

299       Coleridge 22,  86,  319 

385       Conybeare,  F.  C 359 

Coriat,  Dr.  I.  H 15, 213 

275  217,243,263 

377      Crapsey,  Rev.  A.  S 26 

264       Cuvier   193 

Cyprian 299 

278 

228  Darwin    9,  266 

367       Dawson,  W.  J 302 

de  Lagrave,  Dr.  C 100 

229  Delbceuf   88,  91 

81       Dominic 385 

385       Doutrebente,  Dr.  G 129 

327       Dubois,  P.  ...  40,  56,  60,  98,  264 

344      Du  Bose    367 

94      Durkheim   323,  326 

222 

Eddy,  Mrs.  M.  B 10 

,  82  Edwards,  Jonathan 308 

287  Emerson,  R.  W 103 

196  Erskine  of  Linlathen  . .  .313,  367 

136  Esquirol 131 

282  Eulenberg   321 

367  Eusebius 362,363 

417 


4i8 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS 


PAGE 

Falconi    318 

Fechner,  Theodor   n, 

14,  151,  386 

Feuchtersleben 293 

Fiske,  John 21 

Flournoy,  T 211 

Forel,  A 25,40,41,  71, 

76,  8l,  84,  222,  242,  228,  229 

Fox,  George   299,  385 

Franklin 220 

Freud,  S 206,  281 

Galvani  220 

Gibbon 297 

Gilbert,  Dr.  J.  A 241 

Gilles  de  la  Tourette,  G 222 

Goethe 25,  377 

Grant,  E 349 

Gull,  Sir  William     20 

Gurnhill 331 

Hall,  G.  Stanley 269, 

271,  32r»323 

Hansson,  Ola 29 

Hamack,  A 296,  297, 

339,  365,  386 

Hart,  Ernest 71,  77 

Harvey,  W 191 

Heidenhain,  M 77,  82 

Hermann 314 

Herzog,  F 359 

Hirsch  80 

Hodgg  198 

Hudson,  T.  J 28 

Hume  339 

Huxley 179,  308 

Hyslop 211 


Irving 


PAGE 

.  367 


Irenaeus 


298 


James,  Prof 14, 104, 213 

222,     262,     280,     309 

Janet   15,  41,  42,  203, 

2O7,  2IO,  234,  28l,  282,  287 

Jastrow,  J.,  Prof 199 

Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel    . .  102,  273 

Jowett    303 

Juvenal   10,  273 

Kant 152,  377 

Keble  386 

Keim,  Theodor    349 

Keller,  Helen    196 

Kingsley,  Charles 173 

Kircher,  Father     219 

Kraepelin,  E 242 

Krafft-Ebing,  R...   222,  237,  246 
Kurz,  E 242 

Lange,  C 62 

Lao-Tze 384 

Lateau,  Louise 95 

Lecky    276,  304 

Lefevre,  A 97 

Leibner   82 

Lie"beault      41,    105,   222 

Lloyd 41,    71 

Lodge,  Sir  Oliver 305 

Luke,  St 365,  366 

Luther 299,    310,    367,    385 

Mantegazza 169 

Marlowe    25 

Martyr,  Justin   298 

Maudsley,  H 58,  136,  150 

Maurice,  F.  D 294 

Maury   82 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS 


419 


PAGE 

McGiffert,  A.  C 364 

Melanchthon 310 

Mesmer 221 

Metaphysical  School 134 

Mill,  John  Stuart n 

Mitchell,  S.  Weir  ....  49,  50 
75,  in,  112,  159,  161,  175,  282 

Mobius,  P.  J 47,    109, 

in,  121,  127,  128,  129,  135, 
143, 151,160,163 

Mohammed, 308 

Moll,  A 41,    71,    83,    222 

Monica,  St 316 

Moreau      126 

Morel 128 

Morselli 323,    324,    331 

Mosso    267,  271 

Mumford,  Dr.  J.  G 80 

Myers,  Fred   ....  87,  89,  90 

91,92,95,  112,  113 

Nancy    41 

Nevins 359 

Newman,  J.  H 385 

Niebuhr 131 

Osier,  Prof 276,  342 

Origen 299,  367 

Pagniez,  P 264 

Papias    349 

Pascal 278 

Patrick,  Prof.  G.  T.  W 241 

Paul,  St 365,  367 

Paulsen,  F 8 

Philip  of  Hesse 310 

Pierce,  Prof 21 

Powell,  Rev.  Lyman 368 

Pratt,  Dr.  Jos.  H I 


PAGE 

Preyer,  W 82 

Prince,  Dr.  Morton 25, 

199,  200,  203,  207,  217 

232,    263 

Proal,  M 321 

Putnam,  Dr.  James  J 2 

Quadratus 363 

Quatrefrages 131 

Renan    8,  10 

Reymond,  Emil  Dubois   ....  61 

Richard 311 

Richardson,  Sir.  B.  W 346 

Richet    360 

Roosevelt,  President 155 

Rosebery,  Lord    333 

Royce,  Prof 290 

Saleeby,  Dr 277,   280,  328 

Savonarola 385 

Schleiermacher,  F.  D.  E.  ...  385 

Schmidkunz,  Hans 31 

Schmiedel   343 

Schrenck-Notzing 237 

Schofield,  A.  T 18,    19 

50,  58,  346 

Schonberg 83 

Schopenhauer 36,  37, 

92,  131,  161 

Seckendorf 311 

Shakespeare    29,  377 

Shelley 278 

Sidis,  Boris 25,    87,    213, 

217,222, 262 

Smith,  Dr.  A.  H 164 

Smith,  Dr.  Geo.  Carroll 127 

Spinoza   15 

Spurzheim 131 


420 


•INDEX  OF  AUTHORS 


PAGE 

Stapfer    349 

Starbuck   269 

Strahan   321 

Strauss,  D.  F 338,  348, 

349. 378 

Sully 82,83 

Swedenborg 94,  367 

Tacitus    10 

Tauler  385 

Taylor,  Isaac   299 

Tennyson  307, 315 

Terence 378 

Tertullian    296,  303 

Thomson,  1 305 

Thomson,  W.  H 92,  140 

Thomson,  W.  M 349 

Traub 356 

Tuckey,  Lloyd 41,  71 

Tylor  359 

Tyndall  .    21,  61 


PAGE 

Verrall,  Mrs.  A.  W 211 

Verwom,  Max    218,219 

Virchow 179 

Voltaire   86 

Von  Bunge   134 

Von  Hartmann,  Edouard  ...     16 

Von  Jhering    161 

Von  Lilienthal   73 

Wagner  145 

Weber    14 

Webster,  Daniel     193 

Weininger   329 

Weissmann    134 

Weizsacker    364,  365 

Wesley,  John 299,  367 

Wilde,  Oscar 139 

Winslow,  Forbes    96 

Wundt 109 

Wycliffe 385 


INDEX   OF   SUBJECTS 


PAGE 

Absent-mindedness    203 

Affinity 37 

Agitation 68 

Agnosticism 295 

Agoraphobia 214,  283 

Agraphia 196 

Alcoholism  ....36,  128,  134, 

136,  184,  243 
Amnesia    80,    202,    207, 

212,  2l6,  236 

Amulet 94, 302 

Anemia    163 

Anesthesia 230,  236 

Anger,  effect  of 61,  403 

Animal,  capacity  for  the  in- 
hibition of  pain    92 

Animal  organism   17 

Anti-toxic  substances 19 

Aphonia 207,  236 

Apostolic  phenomena    94 

Ataxia    257 

Athletics 156 

Auto-hypnosis   95,  224 

Auto-intoxication 252 

Automatic  action   17 

Automatic  writing  .  .202,  210,  211 

Automatism 231 

Auto-suggestion 93,  99,  100 

Auto-suggestion ,    method    of 

treatment 106 

Auto-suggestion,  experiments 

412,413 


PACK 

Auto-suggestion,  aid  in  liter- 
ary composition   101 

Baldness    171 

Beauchamp,  Miss,  case  of  . . 

25,  205,  215 

Bed-wetting 244 

Blindness,  hysterical. ..  .208,  209 

Blood  poisoning 279 

Blues 403,  413 

Brain 140,  182 

Brain  fag 157 

Brain  lesion 193, 194 

Brain  tumor 197 

Brain-worker 177 

Buddhism n,  280 

Catalepsy 230 

Cell 179,180 

Character 55 

Charm 94 

Child  suicide 321 

Children,  overworked. ...  140,  143 

Cholera   121 

Chorea 122,  264 

Christ's  law  of  prayer 311 

Christian  Science. . . .  10,   12, 

58,  103,  273,  293,  379 

Christianity 150,  280,  377 

Church,  healing  work  of. ... 

6,  297,  301,  371 
Civilization,  effects  of 133 


421 


422 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


PAGE 

Claustrophobia 283 

Clergyman,  duties  of 157 

Climate,    affecting     nervous- 
ness   173,  175,  176 

Cocainism 341 

Coffee 174 

Cold  hands 403 

Compensation  for  services   . .       6 

Competition    397 

Complex    252 

Confession   248,  325 

Consciousness   20,  22,  200 

Constipation 45 , 406 

Control  of  children    43 

Conventional  religion    381 

Co-operation     necessary    be- 
tween physician  and  patient     56 
Co-ordinate   muscular   move- 
ment   256, 257 

Coughing 46 

Counter-suggestion 64 

Creed  384 

Crime  by  hypnosis 72 

Criminal  cases  of  hypnosis ...     73 

Crystal-gazing 202 

Cures  made  by  suggestion.  .53,  54 

Death 274 

Degeneration ,  organic 46 

Delirium  of  fever     22 

Delusion    121 

Demoniacal  activity    ....  296,  297 

Diagnosis    5,    54 

Dictator  in  hypnosis     224 

Dipsomania 243,  244 

Disease 18 

Disease,  transmission  of 129 

Dissociation   ....24,  87,  204,  205 
Divorce   139 


PAGE 

Dogma  of  modem  psychology  309 
Dormant  powers  evoked  by 

suggestion  70 

Double  personality 202 ,  203 

Dream  78,  79,  82,  85,  228 

Drowning,  mental  activity 

when 22 

Drugs 52, 174,  232 

Dysmorphobia  284 

Ecstasy 94 

Ecstatic  state  of  Hindu  Mys- 
tics    225 

Egotism  55 

Electrical  machine 64 

Electricity 5,  49 

Eloquence,  fostered  by  auto- 
suggestion    101 

Emmanuel  Church  move- 
ment, religious  and  scien- 
tific principles  of.  ...1,7, 

9»  I2»  J3»  57.  i°8,  383,  414 

Emotion   38,  62 

Epilepsy 214 

Ereutophobia    284 

Ether 17,  228 

Etherization,     suggestion     in 

surgery 47 

Evidence  of  unconscious  men- 
tal action 16 

Evolution ,  spiritual   39 

Excitement   63 

Exorcism  299 

Exorcist  361 

Eye-strain   3 

Faith,  as  a  therapeutic  agent 

44,  53.  54,  65,  288,  289,  293 
Faith-healing 103 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


423 


PAGE 

Fanatic 98 

Fatigue 197,  198 

Fatigue,  hypnotism  for 78 

Fault-finding 396 

Fear 63,  266,  271,  281 

Fetichism 306 

Fever  163 

Finger-nails,  biting  of 69 

Fish,  change  of  color 92 

Food 172 

Friendship  distinguished  from 

love 36 

Functional  nervous  diseases 

2,  4,  48, 108,  126 

Gastric  disorders   264 

Genius,  works  of 28 

God  cures  by  many  means  .  .3,  4 
Gospel,  resources  of 336 

Habit 145 

Habit  neurosis    252 

Habit  spasm 254,  250 

Hallucination    230 

Happiness 148,  160 

Healing  power  of  God's  Spirit 

67.  68,  355 

Healing  in  early  Church  ....   295 
Healing      ministry      of     the 

Church 380 

Healing  wonders  of  Christ . . .   338 
Health  and  happiness  the  por- 
tion of  God's  children. . . . 

292,  381 
Health    of    soul    and    body 

through  the  religious  life . .   300 
Health     class     supported    by 

voluntary  offerings 6 

Heredity 125 


PAGE 

Hydrophobia 121 

Hypnagogic  state 227 

Hypnosis 41,  42,  65,  81, 

207,  219,  220,  222 

Hypnosis  in  animals   218,  219 

Hypnosis,    elevating    to    the 

moral  faculties 73,  85,  89 

Hypnosis,  experiments  in  74,  75, 83 
Hypnosis,   limited    power   in 

insanity   246 

Hypnosis,  three  transitions. .   229 
Hypnotism,  public  exhibitions 

denounced 273 

Hypochondria   96,  120 

Hypochondriasis 238 

Hysteria. . .  .42, 112,  207,  208,  236 

Imitation,  law  of 324 

Incompatibility 131 

Infinite  Spirit   38 

Insanity 201 ,  35 1 

Insomnia 48,  66,  240,  312 

Inspiration 27 

Instinct    16 

Intercessory  prayer    315 

Intermarriage 131 

Intoxication 165,  166 

Isolation , 262,  264 


Jew. 
Joy 


.125,  154 
294 


Key  to  religion  of  Christ  ....  377 

Kindergarten 141 

Kingdom  of  God 376 

Knee  jerk    187 

Laughter 392 

Leprosy 345 


424 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


PAGE 

Library,  Emmanuel 54 

Literary  composition 25,  26 

Lockjaw 184 

Locomotor  ataxia   . .  184,  250,  255 

Longevity 155,  177 

Love 34,36 

Luxury 146 

Magnetism    221 

Mania    122 

Mannerism   98 

Marriage ,  subconscious  basis .     3  7 

Massage 49 

Masturbation 69,  143 

Materialism 8,  153 

Mechanical     theory     of     the 

world   153 

Medicine,  see  also  drug 2 

Meditation 152 

Melancholia 118,  321 

Memory 21,212 

Memory,  conscious  and  sub- 
conscious memories  dis- 
tinct    25 

Mental  disturbance   followed 

by  disease   402 

Mental  healing,  see  psycho- 
therapy. 

Mentality 92 

Mesmerism 77,    221 

Metaphysical  healing 103 

Microbe 18 

Mind,  power  of 2,  46,  62 

Mind,  blindness    196 

Miracle 311,  341 

Monomania 121 

Monophobia 283 

Monotony   158 

Moral  education  of  children      144 


PACK 

Moral  malady   5»  49 

Moral    obliquity    caused    by 

drugs    241 

Moral  regeneration 57 

Morbid  conditions  created  by 

fear 121 

Morphia 168 

Morphinism    241 

Motor  aphasia    196 

Motor  exercises   358 

Mountain  climbing   35 

Mourning    395 

Movements,  normal  and  ab- 
normal   , .   255 

Multiple  personality   

203,  205,  214 

Muscular  movement   254 

Muse,  the     27 

Mysophobia    214 

Mystery  in  religion   38 

Nature,  healing  power  of 292 

Nausea 47 

Neo-platonic  ecstasy   94 

Nerves    185,   187,   188 

Nervous  disorders  indications 

of  organic  disease 5 

Nervous  disorders  and  moral 

origin 351 

Nervousness.  . .  .48,  in,  133,  177 
Neurasthenia      ....98,     in, 

157,  206,  237,  238 

Neurologist 65 

Neurosis no,  123 

New  religion 378,  379 

New  Thought 336, 379 

Nirvana 280 

Nocturnal  paralysis 264 

Noise   .   161 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


425 


PAGE 

Nomenclature     of      nervous 
diseases   '. 108 

Oil,  anointing  with 364 

Opium 168 

Pain 19 

Paralysis 45,  68,  236 

Paranoia   263 

Paresis 46 

Passive  prayer    317 

Patent  medicines  51 

Peace 376 

Personality  of  physician     ..5,342 

Personality,  diseases  of 5 

Personality,  see  double  multiple    25 
Persuasion  —  suggestion,  Du- 

bois 60 

Phagocyte   19 

Phantom  tumor 115,  208,  209 

Phenomena,  psychological. ..     27 

Phobias   281 

Physician's  responsibility. . . .    156 
Physician,    moral     relations 

with  patients 50 

Physician  of  the  soul 20 

Physiological  psychology  ....     49 

Placebo   64 

Poise 411 

Post-hypnotic  suggestions  . . . 

226,  230 

Poverty    273 

Powers  for  good     15 

Prairie  insanity 160 

Prayer 302,  309,  312,  317 

Prayer,  marked  characteristic 

of  movement 8 

Psychasthenia . ...  115,  116, 

122,  206,  213,  239 


PAGE 

Psychical  influences  in  com- 
bating disease 52 

Psycho-epileptic  attacks   248 

Psychology    6,   14 

Psychopathy. 237 

Psychotherapeutic        proced- 
ures       247 

Psychotherapy    4,  248,  260 

Ptosis 253 

Raja-Yoga 103 

Rationalizing  of  religion  . .  38,  39 

Record 5 

Recuperative  energy    19 

Re-education 238,  248,  251,254 

Reflection    26 

Relic 293 

Religion 8,  38,  151 

Religion,  possesses  the  great- 
est of  all  therapeutic  agents 

58.59 

Rest  cure     . .  \. 49 

Rest  on  Sunday  necessary   . . 

160,  161 
Ricin  poisoning    183 

Salvation 150,  378,  384 

Schools,  American  and  Ger- 
man   compared    142 

Science *  13 

Stance,  hypnotic 226,  229 

Secret  of  Christ's  power     . . .  354 

Secret  of  health    150 

Sedatives 48 

Selfishness 351 

Self-suggestion    97 

Self-will 99 

Senile  dementia 184,  246 

Sensory  aphasia 196 


426 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


PAGE 

Sexual  aberrations     236, 237 

Sexu'    selection    36 

Sexual  vice    138 

Shock 47 

Sickness  no  evidence  of  sin    .   350 

Silent  suggestion    64 

Sin    67,351,394 

Sleep  defined 227 

Sleep,  hypnotic   and   natural 

77,  78,  81,  225,  227,  228 

Sleep,  interpretation  of 198 

Sleep,  mental  activity  in 86 

Sleep,  narcotic    17 

Sleep,  perception  of  time  in. .     32 
Sleep,    tendency    of    injured 

animals  to  sleep 92 

Sleeping  on  a  problem    27 

Sleep-walking 69 

Social  movement  in  Church  .   372 

Spasm    244 

Specialist 3 

Spectacular  cures  not  desired     54 

Speech,  rapidity  of   175 

Spirit,  Universal 28 

Spiritual  energy 67,  68 

Spiritual  life    7 

Spirjtualism 293,  336 

Stage-fright 99,   101 

Stammering 69 

Stigmata    95 

Stimulant 173 

Stimulation   of  music,  color, 

praise 401 

St.  Vitus'  dance,  see  chorea. 
Subconscious  mind  ....  15,  19,  22 
Subconscious    mind ,    activity 

of    29,91 

Subconscious    mind    consists 

of    201 


PAGE 

Subconscious    mind,  diseases 

of 199 

Subconscious  mind,  functions 

of 20,  28,  29,  34,  38,  42,  4.3 

Subconscious     memory,     ex- 
amples of  22,  24 

Suggestion 40,  44,  47,  52, 

65,  66,  69,  70 

Suicide 390 

Suicide,  effect   of  climate  on 

cannot  be  proved 3*4 

Suicide,  legal  and  social  penal- 
ties for  331.334 

Suicide,  statistics  of 324,  325 

Superstition 297 

Summer  favorable  to  crime  . .    161 

Sunstroke 162 

Surgery,  suggestion  in 47 

Swearing  99 

Tea 174 

Teeth 171 

Telepathic 65 

Telepathy   315 

Temperament 392 

Temperance 135,  333 

Threshold  of  consciousness  . .   201 

Thought 55 

Time,  perception  of  the  lapse 

of 3i»33 

Time  sense    32 

Tobacco 174 

Tongues,  "speaking  with"  . .     94 

Tonic 49 

Toothache 46 

Traumatic  neuroses    ....162,213 

Trust   295 

Truth 378 

Tuberculosis i ,  46 


INDEX  OF  SUBJECTS 


427 


Tuberculosis  Class. . . 
Tumor,  see  phantom. 


PAGE  PAGE 

.1,2      Vis  medicatrix  naturae 18 

Vocabulary   197 


Universal  Spirit    42 

Unrest,  cause  of 396 

Vedantist  philosophy    94 

Venereal  disease 137 

Vice,  secret  of  freedom  from.  67 


Waking  suggestion   64,  226 

Will 55,  103,  250,  255 

Work  288 

Worry 277,  401 

Worship 152 


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